Saturday, 9 March 2013

JANUARY
According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), 2011,
though a whopping 96.8 per cent children aged 6 to 14 years (the age
group the RTE Act covers) are now enrolled in school, children’s
attendance is declining and so is their ability to read simple text and
do simple mathematical calculations. In Kerala and Manipur, over 60 per
cent children go to private schools. The percentage of students going to
private schools is 71.1 for Manipur; 39.6 for Punjab, 43.4 for Haryana,
37.7 for Jammu and Kashmir and 29.6 for Himachal. Except in Punjab,
Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, reading abilities declined pan India, where the
percentage of fifth graders able to read Class II text dropped across
the nation from 53.7 per cent in 2010 to 48.2 per cent in 2011.

In a landmark verdict, Supreme
Court, on January 31, 2012, upheld the right of a private citizen to
seek sanction for prosecution of a public servant for corruption, while
setting a deadline of four months for the government to decide the issue
of giving sanction for prosecution of public servants facing corruption
charges. While prescribing a four month time-limit for deciding whether
to grant sanction for prosecution of a public servant, the said
sanction would be deemed to have been granted if the competent authority
failed to take a decision within the period.

On January 11, 2012, the Union government notified the rules
allowing 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand
retail, paving the way for international furniture maker Ikea and
several fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton to set up stores in the
country. Before this, 51% FDI was permitted in this segment of retailing
which was opened to foreign players almost six years ago.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina Wajed, during her visit to Agartala on January 11, 2012, urged
the Indian government to be liberal in the efforts to resolve water
issues between the two countries, as well as to remove the prevailing
bilateral trade imbalance. Bangladesh imports goods worth about $4.5
billion from India every year, compared to Indian import from Bangladesh
worth about $521 million.

Seeking to end flare-ups on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) from
time to time, India and China, on January 17, 2012, established a
working mechanism for consultation and coordination on the boundary
issue to maintain peace and tranquility along their border. The working
mechanism, to be headed by a Joint Secretary-level official from the
Ministry of External Affairs and a Director General level official from
the Chinese Foreign Ministry, will comprise diplomatic and military
officials from the two sides.

On January 25, 2012, India and
Thailand signed six accords, including one on defence cooperation, as
the Southeast Asian nation acknowledged India’s credentials for a
permanent seat in the UN Security Council. The accords were inked after
wide-ranging talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting
Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was also the Chief
Guest at the 2012 Republic Day Parade.

More than three years after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks,
the Union government, on January 12, 2012, finally cleared the
much-awaited National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), albeit a
watered-down version of the original plan that was to subsume all
intelligence agencies and even have an operational wing. This body will
be the fourth major anti-terror setup after the National Investigation
Agency (NIA), National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) and additional hubs
of the National Security Guard (NSG). The NCTC, modelled on the US NCTC,
is aimed at combating terrorism by analyzing threats, sharing the
inputs and information with other agencies and converting these into
actionable data.

India has signed a multilateral
convention on mutual administrative assistance in tax matters aimed at
combating tax avoidance and evasion. The convention not only facilitates
the exchange of information, but also provides for assistance in the
recovery of taxes. This will give a fillip to the government’s efforts
in bringing the Indian money illegally stashed abroad. The multilateral
convention provides for simultaneous tax examinations and participation
in tax examinations in other countries. This will allow tax officials to
enter into the territory of the other country to interview individuals
and examine records.

On January 28, 2012, the Dutch government approved a ban on
face-covering clothing, such as a burqa, a niqab, a forage cap, or a
full face helmet. People going on the streets with one of these now risk
being fined for up to 380 euros ($499). In April 2011, France had
introduced a burqa ban and become the first European country to ban
people from concealing their faces in public in any manner.

The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) is proposing to raise its lending capacity by $500 billion to
insulate the global economy against any worsening of Europe’s debt
crisis. The Washington-based lender currently has about $385 billion
available to lend and wants to lift that to $885 billion after
identifying the potential for a $1 trillion global financing gap in the
next two years. To incorporate a cash buffer, that means asking its
membership for $600 billion. Options for raising the IMF’s resources
include opening a trust fund or not rolling back a 2009 increase.

Latest data shows that an Indian girl child aged 1-5 years is 75%
more likely to die than an Indian boy, making this the worst gender
differential in child mortality for any country in the world.

India’s per capita income grew by
15.6 per cent to Rs 53,331 per annum in 2010-11, crossing the
half-a-lakh mark for the first time. Per capita income is the earnings
of each Indian if the national income is evenly divided among the
country’s population of around 120 crore.

Based on 2004-05 prices, the Indian economy expanded by 8.4 per cent
in 2010-11. The GDP at constant (2004-05) prices in 2010-11 has been
estimated at Rs 48,85,954 crore, as against Rs 45,07,637 crore in
2009-10.

India’s agriculture sector recorded
a 7 per cent growth in 2010-11. The services sector grew by 9.3 per
cent in the same year, while construction sector grew by 8 per cent and
manufacturing grew by 7.6 per cent.

According to the 2012 Environmental Performance Index, India is
ranked a lowly 125th in addressing pollution control and natural
resource management challenges. Switzerland has been ranked number one.

On January 24, 2012 the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) infused more liquidity into the system by lowering
the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points from 6 per cent to 5.5
per cent.

“Yarwng” is the name of a 95-minute feature film made in Kokborok,
the most popular tribal language in Tripura. “Yarwng” means roots in
English.

The first nuclear materials
security index, compiled by a US nuclear think-tank Nuclear Threat
Initiative (NTI) and Economic Intelligence unit (EIU), is a rating and
ranking of the security framework in 32 nations that possess one kg or
more of weapons-usable nuclear materials. It ranks India a poor 28, just
above Iran, Pakistan and North Korea. Australia is ranked one.

National Youth Day is observed on January 12.

National Girl Child Day is observed on January 24.

National Electorate Day is observed on January 25.

World Hindi Day is observed on January 10, to mark the first Hindi conference held in Nagpur in 1975.

Martyrdom Day is observed by India on January 30 every year.

According to a report released by
Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd., Indian
bureaucracy is the worst in Asia, with a 9.21 rating out of 10.
Singapore remains the best with a rating of 2.25, followed by Hong kong,
Thailand and Taiwan.

The Union government has allowed Qualified Foreign Investors (QFIs),
including overseas individuals, to invest directly in Indian stock
markets. So far, the QFIs were permitted to invest only in mutual fund
schemes.

The World Sanskrit Conference was
held in New Delhi in January 2012. The first such conference was held in
India in 1972. It has since been held every three years, even in
countries like Japan and Finland where Sanskrit would not appear to
strike any chord.

IIIT, Hyderabad has used Sanskrit grammer to create computer
software for inter-language translation scientists and scholars, to tap
the tech potential of the language.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC)
has discovered about 4-trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas reserves off the
Daman coast, which can provide 7-million cubic metres a day of gas in
four year times.

The 99th Indian Science Congress was held in Bhubaneshwar.

Starbucks Corp of USA, in a 50:50 JV with Tata Global, opened its first cafe outlets in India in 2012.

Vodafone won a major battle in the Supreme Court which turned down
the demand to pay Rs 11,000 crore by Income tax authorities, towards
capital gains for purchasing Hutchison Ltd’s Indian mobile business in
2007. The SC Bench said that the Indian tax authorities had no
jurisdiction over transactions done abroad.

Japanese insurance major, Nippon
Life Insurance, decided to buy a 26 per cent stake in Reliance mutual
Fund for about Rs 1,450 crore. This was the single-largest FDI in the MF
industry, and also the largest deal in the sector.

Eastman Kodak, the photography icon that invented the hand-held
camera and helped bring the first pictures from the moon, filed for
bankruptcy protection, capping a prolonged plunge for one of USA’s
best-known companies.

Jerry Yang, Yahoo Inc’s co-founder,
resigned following opposition from the shareholders. He had co-founded
the company in 1995. Yahoo Inc. named Scott Thompson, president of eBay
Inc.’s PayPal division, as its new CEO.

HyAlfa, is the world’s first hydrogen-powered three-wheeler. It has
been developed under a joint project by the UN Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO), International Centre for Hydrogen Energy
Technologies, Mahindra & Mahindra and IIT Delhi.

Reliance Industries Ltd. and
Network18 announced a multi-layered deal, adding momentum to the
convergence of media and telecom in India. With the help of funds from
RIL, Netwrok18 will gain broadcasting access to 11 vernacular language
channels and expand its overall portfolio to 25 channels. Network18 runs
channels such as CNBC TV18 and CNN-IBN.

FEBRUARY
On February 9, 2012, the Union Cabinet cleared the notification of
National Center for Cold Chain Development (NCCD), tasked with
establishing infrastructure and logistics to preserve fruit, vegetables
and other perishable items as a registered society. The society will be a
public-private initiative involving two leading industry chambers as
well. India is the second largest producer of horticulture commodities
such as fruits, vegetables and flowers in the world. But a significant
part of that goes waste due to lack of cold chain facilities. Some 71.5
million tonnes of fruit, 133.7 million tonnes of vegetables and 17.8
million tonnes of other perishable commodities like flowers, spices,
coconut, cashew, mushroom and honey are produced annually.

The NCCD will be mandated with
prescribing technical standards for cold chain infrastructure and
undertaking their periodic revision, besides human resource development
programmes for meeting the needs of skilled manpower of the cold chain
sector.

“Bringing green revolution in eastern India programme” (BGREI), has
resulted in a robust increase in foodgrains production. The programme
was an initiative taken by the Prime Minster, based on the
recommendations of Inter Ministerial Task Force. The BGREI is a part of
the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVYJ ) programme with an outlay of Rs
400 crore. This scheme was implemented in Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Odisha, eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

India recorded a net loss of 367 sq
km of forests between 2009 and 2011, with Khammam district in Andhra
Pradesh alone losing 182 sq km of green cover in the period, the latest
state of forest report has found. The report is prepared biennially by
the Forest Survey of India, the Dehradun-based wing of the Union
environment and forests ministry.

Strategies to combat the polio virus were discussed at the two-day
Polio Summit, held on February 25, 2012, in New Delhi. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh opened the summit, which was attended by health ministers
of Pakistan and Nigeria. The summit celebrated India’s huge polio
success—of reduced infection cases, from two lakh annually in 1988 to
zero in 2011. The last child who got wild polio virus 1 was Rukhsar from
Howrah. Today, she is a motivator for UNICEF, going door to door,
asking parents to get children for polio drops. Rukhsar, infected on
January 13, 2011, had never received polio drops.

Poverty has declined marginally in
India, but the country shares the top position with Afghanistan for the
largest number of hungry and malnourished people, and also for the
largest number of children dying in infancy, in the Asia-Pacific region,
indicating the poor health and nutrition status in Asia’s third-largest
economy. India’s failure to remove hunger, the first of the eight
millennium development goals (MDGs), and the unlikelihood of achieving
it by 2015, has been indicated by an assessment of regional progress
towards the MDGs.

The Pitroda panel on railway modernisation has said the organisation
needs Rs 8.23 lakh crore over the next five years to give it a complete
makeover. The Railways requires a gross budgetary support of Rs 2.5
lakh crore, which is around 30 per cent of the total finances needed to
get it on par with global standards. The committee has also recommended a
dividend waiver for the Railways to save the national transporter from
collapse. Over five years, Rs 24,000 crore can be made available through
waiver of dividend alone.

Faced with persistent threats from
pirates operating off the coast of Somalia, India and China have started
cooperating with each other, roping in Japan to tackle piracy. This is
the first working relationship on the high seas between the Indian Navy
and China’s People Liberation Army (Navy). Warships from India, China
and Japan have been deployed independently. Their role is conducting
independent anti-piracy patrols in the internationally recognised
transit corridor—a 480 nautical mile (approx 890 km) long area in the
Gulf of Aden. The 92-km wide corridor starts at the confluence of the
Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and extends eastwards towards the Arabian
Sea.

Prime Minister of Mauritius Navinchandra Ramgoolam reached India on
February 7, 2011, for a six-day official visit to ramp up bilateral
economic and security ties. During his visit, several agreements in the
field of economics and security were signed.

In a huge embarrassment to the
government and a jolt to the telecom sector, the Supreme Court, on
February 2, 2012, cancelled 122 2G licences granted during the tenure of
former Telecom Minister A Raja declaring it as “illegal” and blamed the
government's flawed first-come-first-served policy. In a second crucial
verdict, the court refused to order a probe into the alleged role of P.
Chidambaram in the spectrum scam.

On February 15, 2012, the Union government came out with new broad
guidelines for the telecom sector for spectrum management and licensing
framework. From now, all future licences will be unified licences and
allocation of spectrum will be delinked from the licences. In a major
advantage to old GSM operators, the government has said that all service
providers would be allowed to hold higher spectrum of up to 10 MHz
which would help them offer quality services. Merger up to 35 per cent
market share of the resultant entity will be allowed through a simple,
quick procedure. The market share would be determined based on total
subscriber base of the merged entity and the AGR of the licencees.

The Union government has notified a
rule making it compulsory for IAS,IPS and officers from other all-India
services to retire in public interest if they fail to clear a review
after 15 years of service. Officers adjudged as inefficient and
non-performing will be shown the door. Even those who make the cut will
face another review after 25 years of service or on turning 50,
whichever happens first. The measure is part of a package of
administrative reforms fast-tracked by the government in the wake of
Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption agitation. The clean-up act follows
initiatives to ensure time-bound delivery of services and a citizens
charter to list duties of various departments.

Mutiny by sections of the police and the army on February 7, 2011,
forced Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed to step down and hand over
power to the Vice-President Mohamed Waheed Hassan. Nasheed had been
facing increasingly violent street protests and a constitutional crisis
ever since he got a judge arrested on January 16, after accusing him of
being ‘in the pocket’ of his predecessor Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had
ruled for 30 years before Nasheed was swept to power in 2008 as the
first democratically elected President of Maldives.

On February 21, 2012, Yemen ushered
Ali Abdullah Saleh from power after 33 years, voting to endorse his
deputy as President, with a mission to rescue the nation from poverty,
chaos and the brink of civil war. The vote made Saleh the fourth Arab
autocrat in a year to be removed from power, after revolutions in
Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.

On February 13, 2012, the Greek government came under pressure to
convince skeptical European capitals that it would stick to the terms of
a multi-billion euro rescue package endorsed by lawmakers during
violent protests on the streets of Athens. Greek Parliament backed
drastic cuts in wages, pensions and jobs, on February 12, as the price
of a 130-billion euro bailout by the European Union and International
Monetary Fund.

UNICEF’s Flagship State of the
World Children Report 2012, said urbanisation is leaving billions of
children in cities across the world excluded from vital services. More
than 50 per cent of the world’s population today lives in urban areas.
Of these, one billion are children, devoid of any semblance of decent
living. In India, 377 million live in the urban centers. Out of them, 97
million are urban poor (the lowest 25 per cent section) as per Census
2011 data. An estimated 535 million will live in towns by 2026. This
would be 40 per cent of India’s population. There is a shocking,
13-point difference in the Infant Mortality Rates among urban non poor
and urban poor children; 54 per cent more infants die in urban poor
families. That’s not all, 20 per cent more children are anaemic among
urban poor than among the urban non poor and one in every two children
among the urban poor is underweight.

On February 4, 2011, Russia and China joined forces in a double veto
to knock down a Western-Arab UN Security Council resolution backing an
Arab League plan for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside.
Dropping the usual diplomatic courtesies, US Ambassador Susan Rice said
she was “disgusted” by the Russian and Chinese veto, adding that “any
further bloodshed that flows will be on their (Russia’s and China’s)
hands.”

Exposing the ISI’s “manipulation”
of Taliban’s senior leadership and its “massive double game”, a damning
NATO report said that the Pakistan government remains “intimately”
involved with the Afghan-based terror group. The report was leaked out
on February 1, 2012, during the visit of Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina
Rabbani Khar to Kabul.

According to the latest Union health ministry data, Goa recorded the
lowest infant mortality rate—10 infant deaths per 1000 live births,
followed by Kerala at 13. Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest IMR at 62,
followed by Uttar Pradesh at 61.

The 12th Sustainable Development
Summit was held in New Delhi on February 2, 2012. One of the star
delegates was Hollywood actor and former Governor of California (USA)
Arnold Schwarzenegger.

World Cancer Day is observed on February 4.

India Design Mark symbolizes
product excellence in form, function, quality, safety, sustainability
and innovation. It acts as a brand extension and imparts competitive
advantage to a product in local and international markets. All types of
mass produced products are eligible for India Design Mark, which is
granted by India Design Council (An autonomous body under Ministry of
Commerce & Industry, Government of India), in association with
G-Mark, Japan.

On February 7, 2011, Britain marked the 200th Anniversary of the
birth of Charles Dickens, author of English literature’s most iconic
novels. Among his greatest novels are: Sketches by Boz, The Old
Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, Barnaby Rudge, A
Christmas Carol, Martin Chuzzlewit, A Tale of Two Cities, David
Copperfield, Great Expectations, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Hard Times,
Our Mutual Friend, The Pickwick Papers.

On February 18, 2011, the Ministry
of Human Resource Development flagged-off the “Sakshar Bharat Yatra” to
promote the cause of literacy.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar created history on February 21, 2012,
by becoming first Indian Speaker to lead a parliamentary delegation to
Pakistan, to boost parliamentary ties and people to people contact.

According to the cost of living
survey by Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU), Mumbai and New Delhi are
among the four least expensive places across the world. Karachi,
Pakistan, has been listed as the cheapest city globally, while Zurich,
Switzerland, is the most expensive place across the world, followed by
Tokyo (Japan) and Geneva (Switzerland).

“Maitree Bandhan” is a people-to-people initiative by “The Times of
India” and Bangladesh’s “Prothom Alo”. It aims to bring together two
nations that share a 4,000 km long border, and common history, language
and culture.

From February 21, 2012, the Union
government started the release of the nationwide Consumer Price Index
(CPI) on a monthly basis, for better reflection of retail price movement
and to help RBI take effective monetary steps to deal with inflation.
The CPI, according to experts, will eventually replace Wholesale Price
Index (WPI) for policy actions to deal with the price situation. The
monthly CPI will be in addition to the three retail price indices—for
agricultural labourers, rural labourers and industrial workers—prepared
by the Union Ministry of Labour.

Amazon.com made a wild card entry into India by using one of its
tributaries, Junglee.com, that it had bought 14 years ago.
Junglee.com has been positioned as an online shopping service that will
help customers discover products from other websites, including
Amazon.com.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has
announced a joint venture with Mistubishi Corporation to increase
penetration in Japan, the world’s second largest IT market. The JV will
be named Nippon TCS Solution Center.

Flipkart.com has bought out electronics retailer Letsbuy.com for an
estimated $25 million, in a big consolidation move for the burgeoning
Indian e-commerce market.

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Brands
has struck an equal joint venture with Nasdaq-listed Iconix Brand
group, acquiring the ownership and management rights of 20 international
brands for India. These brands—including names like Ed Hardy, Mossimo,
London Fog, Ecko and Candie’s—operate mostly in fashion apparel, home
décor and electronics, with combined retail revenue of $12 billion
globally.

Bharti Airtel, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Airtel M Commerce
Services Ltd, has announced the pan-Indian launch of its mobile wallet
service—Airtel Money. Available across 300 key cities, Airtel Money is a
fast, simple and secure service that allows its users to load cash on
their mobile devices and spend it to pay utility bills and recharges and
shop at 7,000-plus merchant outlets, and transact online.

The Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX)
is the first bourse in India to be listed. This puts it at par with
major global bourses like NYSE Euronext, Nasdaq, Singapore, Hong Kong
and Sydney, which are all listed.

MARCH
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP alliance made history by
overcoming anti-incumbency to retain power for the second consecutive
term in Punjab, thus creating history in the Punjab electoral politics.
By winning 56 seats on its own and with its alliance partner BJP winning
12 seats, this is the first time in Punjab’s history that a ruling
party has been voted back to power. Mr Parkash Singh Badal was sworn-in
as the Chief Minister on March 14.

The Samajwadi Party won a landslide
victory and formed the government without any outside support. It won
224 seats of the 403-member Assembly. While the projection of Mulayum
Singh Yadav’s son Akhilsh Singh Yadav as the party’s new face proved to
be a real winner, the SP’s ride to power was also helped as it was seen
as the strongest party capable of dislodging the Mayawati government.
Akhilesh Yadav, son of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, was
elected as the youngest Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, representing a
generational shift in a State whose politics is dominated by caste and
religion. He was sworn in on March 15.

The Digambar Kamat-led Congress government in Goa suffered an
embarrassing defeat with most of its stalwarts biting the dust, mainly
at the hands of newbies fielded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The
BJP, along with its ally the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP),
bagged a majority (24 seats) in the 40-member Assembly. Congress could
win only 9 seats. Mr Manohar Parrikar was sworn-in as the Chief Minister
on March 9.

Voters in Uttarakhand delivered a
hung House, with both the Congress and the BJP falling short by four and
five seats, respectively, for a simple majority in the Assembly of 70
members. While the Congress won 32 seats, BJP bagged 31. BSP got 3 seats
and Independents 4. Mr Vijay Bahuguna of Congress was elected as the
Chief Minister of the State.

Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, veteran Congressman, led
the party to the third consecutive victory in Manipur, the most troubled
state in the North-East, belying speculation about a hung Assembly.

In an unprecedented step, the
Election Commission, on March 30, 2012, countermanded the Rajya Sabha
polls in Jharkhand in the wake of allegations of horse trading and
seizure of over Rs 2 crore in cash, saying the election process there
“has been seriously vitiated”.

On March 29, 2012, Lok Sabha passed the Judicial Standards and
Accountability Bill, 2011, aimed at striking a balance between
maximising judicial independence and laying down accountability at the
same time for members of the higher judiciary.

In nuclear India, capable of
routinely sending satellites into space, 31 per cent—10 crore—out of 33
crore households across the country use kerosene for lighting homes.
Nearly 7 per cent of the urban houses (presumably slums) use kerosene
while 43 per cent rural homes use the fuel, indicating that they either
do not have power supply or cannot afford it. This figure is an
improvement over 2001, when 42 per cent households used kerosene for
lighting purposes.

Only 5 per cent—some 1.65 crore—families in the country own a
personal four wheeler. Only 9.7 per cent—some 1 crore—of the 11 crore
urban families have a four wheeler.

Despite India’s rapid economic
growth, nearly 15 per cent families live in houses that have roofs made
of grass, thatch, bamboo, wood, mud etc. Ten years ago, the figure was
21. 9 per cent.

Only 32 per cent households use tap water for drinking from a
treated (filtration plant) source. Only 47 per cent families have source
of water (tap, well, etc) within the houses, while 18 per cent fetch
drinking water from a source located more than 500 meters (villages) and
100 meters (urban) from their homes. In urban areas, 70 pc homes have
tapped water supply, while just 30 pc enjoy the facility in the rural
areas.

67 per cent of families in India
use firewood, crop residue, cow dung and coal as fuel to cook. Only 29
per cent homes across the country have access to LPG, electricity or
bio-gas as fuel for cooking purposes. In the urban areas, 65 per cent of
homes have access to LPG while 20. 1 per cent use firewood and 7. 5 per
cent kerosene for cooking.

On March 16, 2012, battling a tough economic situation and severe
political compulsions, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee did a balancing
act to present a pragmatic and realistic Union Budget for 2012-13.
While tax payers got some relief in the form of increase in exemption
and changes in income tax brackets, the Budget, as expected, was tax
heavy for consumption as both excise and service tax went up from 10 per
cent to 12 per cent. The fiscal deficit came out to be at 5.9 per
cent, much higher than the Budget estimates of 4.6 per cent. In 2013-14,
it was proposed to bring it down to 5.1 per cent.

In Budget 2012, outlays for welfare
schemes saw modest hikes as the focus is on controlling expenditure.
Allocation for road transport was enhanced by 14 per cent. Target for
agricultural credit was raised to Rs. 5.75 lakh crore. Rural drinking
water and sanitation got 27 per cent rise in allocation to Rs. 14,000
crore. RTE got Rs. 25,555 crore allocation, showing an increase of 21
per cent.

The Union government set a target to raise Rs. 30,000 crore from
stake sales in public sector undertakings in 2012-13, even as it missed
the target for 2011-12 by a wide margin.

Finance Minister announced a
justifiable 17.6 per cent hike in its defence spending to allocate an
additional Rs. 28,992 crore for 2012-13, over the ongoing year’s Rs.
1,64,415 crore defence budget.

In an effort to encourage investment in the infrastructure sector,
the Union Budget allowed financial institutions to raise about Rs.
60,000 crore through tax-free bonds in 2012-13.

Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi
was forced to resign by Mamata Banerjee and Mr Mukul Roy was appointed
as the Railways Minister, who rolled back the hike in fares proposed
originally by Mr Trivedi, except in case of AC 2-tier and AC-1 fares. He
further added that the financial loss incurred due to the roll-back of
fares would be compensated by sale of railway land all over the country
and further encouragement of public-private partnerships.

The Railway Budget announced setting up of a Railway Safety
Authority as a statutory regulatory body as recommended by Kakodkar
Committee. Three 'Safety Villages' to be set up at Bengaluru, Kharagpur
and Lucknow for skill development for disaster management.

India’s economic growth was
estimated at 6.9 per cent in 2011-12 by the Economic survey 2012.
Agriculture grew at 2.5 % growth in FY 12. Services grew at 9.4 %, and
thier share in GDP was at 59%.

WPI food inflation dropped from 20.2% in February 2010 to 1.6% in January 2012.

Central spending on social services increased by 18.5% in FY 12 Vs 13.4%.

On March 30, 2012, India and Brazil signed six accords in diverse
fields and agreed to take steps to exploit the full potential of their
cooperation in defence, nuclear energy and other vital areas. The
agreements were signed after the meeting between Prime minister Manmohan
Singh and visiting Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

Taking a giant step towards
normalisation of relations, India and China, on March 1, 2012, decided
to begin a dialogue on maritime issues while resolving to maintain peace
and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The suggestion
for the first-ever maritime dialogue between the two countries was made
by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi during talks with External
Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna in New Delhi.

On March 29, 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese
President Hu Jintao agreed that the current Special Representative (SR)
mechanism between the two countries to resolve the border dispute should
continue to work and peace and tranquillity be maintained along the
Line of Actual Control (LAC). They also signed a document to celebrate
2012 as ‘The Year of India-China Friendship’ by organising commemorative
programmes.

Seeking to expand their strategic
ties, India and South Korea agreed to step up political and security
cooperation, during the four-day visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
to Seoul, starting March 25, 2012. They also vowed to double the
bilateral trade to an ambitious $40 billion by 2015.

Clerical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tightened his grip on
Iran’s faction-ridden politics after loyalists won over 75 percent of
seats in Parliamentary elections at the expense of President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, a near-complete count showed. The widespread defeat of
Ahmadinejad supporters—including his sister, Parvin Ahmadinejad—reduced
the President to a lame duck after he sowed divisions by challenging the
utmost authority of Khamenei in the governing hierarchy.

Vladimir Putin triumphed in
Russia’s Presidential election on March 4, 2012, calling his victory a
turning point that had prevented the country falling into the hands of
enemies. Putin’s opponents, however, complained of widespread fraud,
refused to recognise the results and said they would press ahead with
the biggest protests since he rose to power 12 years ago.

More than two billion people have gained access to better drinking
water sources, such as piped supplies and protected wells, between 1990
and 2010, according to the UN officials. The figure means the world has
met the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to
halve the proportion of people with no safe drinking water well ahead of
a 2015 deadline.

On March 8, 2012, Greece
successfully closed its bond swap offer to private creditors, opening
the way to securing the funding it needs to avert a messy default on its
debt. The biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history will see bond
holders accept losses of some 74 percent on the value of their
investments in a deal that will cut more than 100 billion euros from
Greece’s crippling public debt.

South Korea hosted the second world Nuclear Security Summit on March
26, 2012, a gathering first convened in 2010 by President Barack Obama
with the goal of securing vulnerable nuclear material by 2014. At the
end of the two-day nuclear security summit a bland statement by the
leaders reaffirmed the need to work harder to ensure a “safer world for
all”. Estimates say as much as 1,600 tons of weapons-grade highly
enriched uranium (HEU) and 500 tons of plutonium exist in the world,
sometimes stored under questionable security in former Soviet States and
elsewhere.

Determined to end the hegemony of
rich Western nations in navigating global economic policies, the BRICS
nations, on March 29, 2012, signed two key accords to promote trade
among them in their local currencies and explore the possibility of
setting up a development bank for mobilising resources for
infrastructure and sustainable development projects. The Master
Agreement on Extending Credit Facility in Local Currency and the
Multilateral Letter of Credit Confirmation Facility Agreement are being
seen as a major step towards replacing the dollar as the main currency
for trading amongst the five nations.

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries
are exploring ways to substantially increase the intra-BRICS trade in
the next couple of years from the current $230 billion. The trade
ministers of the five countries, who met in New Delhi on March 28, 2012,
just before the Summit, agreed on enhancing trade, including of
high-value manufactured items. They also agreed to intra-BRICS
cooperation, especially in the areas of customs cooperation, trade
facilitation, investment promotion, SME cooperation and trade data
collection.

On March 9, 2012, the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) slashed the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) by 75 basis points
to 4.75 per cent. The move helped in easing the liquidity situation by
injecting Rs 480 billion into the banking system.

According to the Forbes magazine’s annual list of world’s richest,
RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani (ranked 19th in global list) continues to be
the world’s richest Indian, followed by Savitri Jindal and family (80),
Sunil Mittal and family (113), and Kumar Birla (116).

The fifth unit of the Mundra power
plant was synchronized in first week of March 2012, taking its capacity
to 4,620 MW and making it the world’s largest single-location coal-fired
plant in private sector. China, Poland and Taiwan have three plants
exceeding 5,000 MW but they are all State-owned. Mundra is owned by
Adani Power and is the fifth largest in the world.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, a 32-volume reference book in homes and
libraries worldwide, has decided to stop publishing the print edition
for the first time in 244 years and shift focus to digital versions. The
book-form of the encyclopaedia had first hit the print in Scotland in
1768.

India Water Week was international
level conference held from 10 –14th April, 2012 at New Delhi. The main
theme of the conference was “Water, Energy and Food Security call for
Solution”.

The Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) program is an arrangement
between the tax payer and tax authority to resolve potential disputes in
relation to determination of Arm’s Length Price (ALP) of an
international transaction through an upfront agreement.

General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR)
generally empowers tax authorities to deny tax benefit on transactions
or arrangements which do not have commercial substance or consideration
other than achieving tax benefits. In the GAAR proposed in Union Budget
2012, an arrangement will be considered as ‘impermissible avoidance
arrangement’ if it’s ‘main purpose’ is to obtain ‘tax benefit’ and it
satisfied one of the four tests—(i) transaction not an aLP, (ii) results
in misuse or abuse of tax provisions, (iii) lacks commercial substance,
and (iv) non-bonafide purpose.

India has emerged as the world’s largest importer of arms, according
to the report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(SIPRI). India accounts for 10 per cent of global arm imports between
2007 and 2011.

According to the latest data
released by the Planning Commission, poverty in India has significantly
declined between 2004-05 and 2009-10. The new estimates are based on a
poverty line that averages Rs 672.80 per month (Rs 22.43 per day) in
rural areas and Rs 859.60 per month (Rs 28.65 per day) in urban areas
for 2009-10. Poverty is down to 29.8 per cent in 2009-10 from 37.2 per
cent in 2004-05. Rural poverty declined to 33.8 per cent, from 41.8 per
cent, and Urban poverty declined to 20.9 per cent, from 25.7 per cent.
While poverty declined by over 10 per cent in the given period in
Tripura, Orissa, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, it increased in Nagaland, Manipur, Assam,
Meghalaya Bihar, UP and Chattisgarh.

United Nations has declared 2012 as International Year of
Cooperatives. It is intended to raise public awareness of the invaluable
contributions of cooperative enterprises to poverty reduction,
employment generation and social integration. The Year will also
highlight the strengths of the cooperative business model as an
alternative means of doing business and furthering socio-economic
development.

Recognizing the importance of
energy for sustainable development, the United Nations General Assembly
designated the year 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy
for All. This presents a valuable opportunity to raise awareness about
the importance of increasing sustainable access to energy, energy
efficiency, and renewable energy at the local, national, regional and
international levels.

On March 22, 2012, Bihar turned 100
years old. It was on this day in 1912, when the British had carved out
the State from Bengal Presidency. On this occasion State’s own anthem
(Bihar Gaan) and State prayer Bihar Prarthna Geet) were released.

World Glaucoma Day is observed on March 12.

World Forestry Day is observed on March 21.

World Water Day is observed on March 22.

According to the annual India
Philanthropy Report, 2012, brought out by Bain & Company Inc., more
than a third of High Networth Individuals (HNIs) who turned to
philanthropy in 2011 were below 30 years. Wealthy Indians pledged 3.1%
of their income to philanthropy, up from 2.3% in 2010. Education
remained the most popular cause, followed by food and clothing.

The Union government hiked the interest rates for small savings
schemes like the Public Provident Fund (PPF) and the National Savings
Certificate (NSC) by 0.2 percentage points. The interest rate on the PPF
has been increased from 8.6 per cent to 8.8 per cent, while the new
rates on the 5-year NSC have been revised from 8.4 per cent to 8.6 per
cent.

The fourth BRICS Summit was held in New Delhi in March 2012.

Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy is among 12 “greatest
entrepreneurs of our time”, according to a Fortune magazine list, which
is topped by Apple’s late chief Steve Jobs. It also includes Microsoft
founder Bill Gates and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

As per the latest Consumer Price
index (CPI) figures, Bangalore is the costliest city in India, followed
by Mumbai, Chennai,Kolkata and Delhi.

India Government Mint, Kolkata celebrated its Diamond Jubilee on
March 31, 2012. An ISO 9001:2008 unit of Security Printing and Minting
Corporation of India Limited, it was the first mint to successfully
process pure Nickel for minting coins in Asia. Medallion for national
and international events, civil and military decorations like Bharat
Ratna, Param Vir Chakra etc. are all minted here.

In a first of its kind alliance,
the largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank, the third-largest public
sector lender, Bank of Baroda, and Citi Financial (the NBFC arm of
Citigroup) have decided to form the first Infrastructure Development
Fund (IDF).

Larsen and Tuobro (L&T) has named Krishnamurthi Venkataramanan
as the CEO and Managing Director of the company. Current chairman and
Managing director, A.M. Naik will continue as executive chairman.

Bharat Dynamics Ltd has unveiled a plan to set-up a surface-to-air missile unit in Hyderabad at a total cost of Rs 30,000 crore.

The board of IT major Tech Mahindra Ltd has approved the merger with
Mahindra Satyam, in a stock deal valued at about USD one billion, at
swap ratio of 2:17, becoming India’s fifth largest software exporter by
revenue.

L&T MF will Fidelity Mutual
Fund in India. The combined entity, with about Rs 13,000 crore in Assets
under Management (AUM), will be the 13th largest fund house in India
and 10th in terms of equity assets.

Mahindra & Mahindra announced two defence sector a
joint-ventures—one with government of Israel-owned Rafael Advanced
Defence Systems and another JV with US-based Telephonics Corp.

APRIL
Market regulator SEBI allowed stock exchanges and some specified
alternate investment funds (AIFs), such as private equity funds and
venture capital funds, to list on the bourses with some riders. In a
wide ranging reform, SEBI has also brought all Indian AIFs, including
PEs and VCs, under its ambit of inspection and investigation, and said
all these funds have to register with the regulator now. This could
pave the way for the listing of stock exchanges such as BSE and NSE.

On April 17, 2012, Reserve Bank of
India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao surprised the market with a sharp
50-basis point reduction in the repo rate to boost economic growth, but
warned there was limited scope for further cuts. The first rate cut in
three years cheered investors and companies, with bond yields and swaps
rates falling sharply and stocks extending gains, although the rally was
capped by expectations there would be few further cuts, at least in the
near term.

On April 12, 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional
validity of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE)
Act (2009) and ruled that the law would apply uniformly across India to
all private and minority schools which get grants from the government.
All unaided private schools are also covered under the Act, with the
exception of unaided private minority schools. All schools covered by
the law will now have to compulsorily reserve in Class I (or nursery at
entry level) at least 25 per cent seats of the total strength of that
class for children belonging to weaker sections and disadvantaged group
in the neighbourhood.

Sikh couples will now be able to
get their marriages registered under the Anand Marriage Act, 1909,
instead of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. Accepting the long-standing
demand of Sikhs, the Union Cabinet, on April 12, 2012, approved
amendments to the Anand Marriage Act, 1909, to provide for registration
of Sikh marriages.

The Union Cabinet has approved the introduction of a Bill to amend
the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, to include registration
of marriages as well. The move aims at utilising the existing
administrative mechanism to maintain marriage records on the lines of
records of births and deaths. The amendment would allow couples to get
their marriages registered independent of their religion, though the
option of getting marriages registered under the Hindu Marriage Act and
the Special Marriages Act would continue.

A report titled, “The Economic and
Social Cost of Illiteracy: A Snapshot of Illiteracy in A Global
Context”, published by the World Literacy Foundation and released to
coincide with the World Literacy Summit, has revealed that illiteracy is
costing the world economy a massive $1.19 trillion each year. Of this,
the Indian economy alone is losing $53.56 billion annually, lesser only
to China, which is losing $ 135.60 billion. The report assesses
functional illiterates which UNESCO defines as “people who can read and
write simple words but can’t apply these skills to tasks such as reading
a medicine label, balancing a cheque book or filling a job
application”.

Dubbed as ‘Dargah Diplomacy’, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s
day-long private visit to India on April 8, 2012, to offer prayers at
the Ajmer Sharif, did help the two South Asian neighbours reduce mutual
tension and consider practical ways to speedily settle some of the less
contentious issues such as Sir Creek and Siachen. At his one-on-one
meeting with Zardari, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, however, made it a
point to highlight the issue of terrorism upfront and unequivocally told
the Pakistani leader that action must be initiated against JuD chief
Hafiz Saeed and other perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attack.

Seeking to take its relations with
Seychelles to new heights, India, on April 30, 2012, during the visit of
President Pratibha Patil to the country, announced a USD 75 million
financial package for the country and agreed to train police personnel
in the strategically located Indian Ocean archipelago, affected by
piracy.

On April 3, 2012, democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won
almost all the seats it contested in Myanmar elections, becoming the
main opposition force in the national Parliament.

The veteran dissident’s National
League for Democracy stormed to victory in 43 of the 44 constituencies
where it fielded candidates. The landslide win in the bye-elections gave
Suu Kyi her first-ever seat in Parliament, although it will not
threaten the comfortable majority of the military-backed Union
Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The NLD won 37 seats in the
440-seat lower house, along with four in the upper house and two in the
regional chambers.

The ASEAN Heads of Government/State and the Secretary-General of
ASEAN gathered at the Peace Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on April 3,
2012, for the 20th ASEAN Summit. Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia and
the Chairman of the 20th ASEAN Summit, presided over the Plenary
Session.

On April 14, 2012, the wreck of the
Atlantic liner Titanic came under UNESCO protection as it has now lain
at the bottom of the Atlantic for 100 years. As per the 2009 UN
Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, after a
century all wrecks fall under the jurisdiction of UNESCO. On April 14,
1912, the passenger liner Titanic, on its maiden voyage, had hit an
iceberg and sank to almost 4,000 meters in waters off Newfoundland,
leading to loss of life of 1,514 people on board.

The Pamban Bridge is a cantilever bridge on the Palk Strait and
connects Rameswaram on the Pamban Island to mainland India. The bridge
spans a 2 km-straight between mainland and island and is the only
surface transport link between the two. The Pamban Bridge was India’s
first sea bridge and is the second longest in the country after the
Bandra-Worli Sea Link at a length of about 2.3 km.

On April 8, 2012, a cruise ship, MS
Balmoral, carrying 1,309 passengers, the same number as were on the
Titanic, left on a voyage to recreate the exact journey the famous
vessel took on its ill-fated maiden voyage 100 years ago. Passengers
from 28 countries paid between 2,799 pounds and 5,995 pounds per person
for the privilege of retracing the route of the ship involved in
probably the world's most famous maritime disaster. The Balmoral left
Southampton port, tracing Titanic’s exact route—via Cherbourg in France
and Cobh on the south coast of Ireland—and arriving at the spot where
liner sank.

Rongali Bihu (spring festival) is celebrated in Assam in April and marks the beginning of the Assamese New Year.

In financial year 2011-12, bank
credit grew by 19.3%, surpassing the 16% target set by the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI). Outstanding bank loans touched Rs 47.04 lakh crore as on
March 31, 2012. The deposits grew by 17.4%.

India’s first 4G service was launched by Bharti Airtel in Kolkata on
April 10, 2012. The service offers 40 Mbps speed for download and 20
Mbps for upload. India is one of the first countries in the world to
commercially deploy the cutting-edge TD-LTE technology. Bharti Airtel is
one of the founding members of the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) which
was launched at the Mobile World Congress, 2011.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee has been named among the 100 most influential persons in the
world by the prestigious Time magazine,
in its 2012 list that also included US President Barack Obama,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire investor Warren
Buffet. Apart from Banerjee, advocate Anjali Gopalan, who works for the
rights of gays and transgendered in India, was the only other Indian in
the list. The 2012 list is topped by American basketball sensation
Jeremy Lin.

National Dairy Plan, which was launched on April 19, 2012, aims to
increase the productivity of milch animals by adopting focused,
scientific and systematic processes and help provide rural milk
producers with greater access to the organized milk processing sector.

In 2011-12, India’s exports rose
21% from the previous year to $303.7 billion, higher than the
government’s target of $300 billion. Imports rose faster at 32.1% to
$488.6 billion, mainly due to oil and gold imports, raising the trade
deficit to $184.9 billion, from $ 118.6 billion in 2010-11.
Pharmaceuticals, petroleum and engineering powered the export growth.

World Health Day is observed on April 7.

National Safe Motherhood Day is observed on April 11.

Earth Day is observed on April 22.

World Book and Copyright Day is observed on April 23.

National Panchayati Raj Day is observed on April 24.

Synriam is India’s first
indigenously developed anti-malarial drug. It beats all currently
available options on the counts of affordability, compliance and relief.
The drug is the result of first successful public-private partnership
on pharmaceutical research and development in India. Ranbaxy and the
Ministry of Science paid Rs 5 crore each for the development of the
drug.

On May 13, 2012 the Indian Parliament completed 60 years of its first sitting.

Padder Sapphire mines are located
in Doda district of J&K. The Kashmir Sapphire is a characteristic
deep blue with a cornflower tinge and resembles the feathers of a
peacock. The rare quality gemstone from Padder fetches the highest
possible price per carat.

As per the latest data released by the Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation, the per capita of India was Rs 60,972 in
2010-11. Goa topped the list with per capita income of Rs 192,652,
followed by New Delhi (Rs 175,812) and Chandigarh (Rs 128,634).

HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, appointed Stuart Milne to head its Indian operations as CEO.

Net investments by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), in the
Indian stock market, in 2011-12, was the lowest in the last three years,
at Rs 47,935 crore during the fiscal ended March 31, 2012, which was
way below the figure of Rs 1.1 lakh crore in 2010-11 and Rs 96,857 crore
during 2009-10.

Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Company
(MSICL) of Japan acquired 26% stake in Max New York Life (MNYL), India’s
fourth largest private insurance company. Under the deal, US partner
New York Life sold its entire 26% stake in MNYL. MYNL has been renamed
as Max India Insurance Company.

Beleaguered national carrier Air India received a fresh lease of
life in the form of additional infusion of Rs 30,000 crore in tranches
till 2020 and induction of 27Dreamliner aircraft. The government also
decided to hive-off Air India’s MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul)
business and engineering services as two wholly-owned subsidiaries to
unburden the cash-strapped carrier of excess staff.

Mobile phone group Vodafone agreed to buy Cable & Wireless
Worldwide (CWW) for $1.7 billion, giving it a British fixed-line network
to relieve the strain on its wireless operations from data-hungry
Smartphone users.

India’s largest IT exporter, Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS) became the first Indian IT company to cross
the $10 billion milestone. Its full-year revenue on 2011-12 stood at
$10.17 billion (Rs 48,894 crore).

Wipro, India’s number three software services exporter, signed an
agreement to buy Australia’s Promax Applications Group for 35 million
Australian dollars.

The Aditya Birla group decided to
buy a majority stake in Kishore Biyani’s fashion apparel business under
the Pantaloon brand for Rs 800 crore in an attempt to diversify its
fashion retail play. Future Group, which runs Big Bazaar, Home Town and
several other retail chains, said that it will spin-off its fashion
apparel format from the listed Pantaloon Retail India (PRIL) into a
separate company, into which Aditya Birla Nuvo (ABNL) will pump in Rs
800 crore through the issuance of convertible debentures.

MAY
On May 22, 2012, India moved decisively to secure a lifelong right
of artistes over their literary, musical and dramatic creations,
ensuring that every time anyone uses their work for entertainment or
profit-making, the artiste gets a share in the killing and doesn’t end a
pauper, as the case often is. Parliament amended the archaic Copyright
Act of 1957 and made creator the king. The Copyright Amendment Bill 2012
defines the author of copyright as its owner, and secures his right to
royalty over the work.

The report of the three
interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir recommended setting up of a
Constitutional Committee to examine threadbare all Central laws extended
to the State, while seeking restoration of the sanctity of Article 370
which grants special status to the State within the Indian Union.
Touching upon various subjects, particularly Centre-State relations, the
interlocutors—mandated to open dialogue with various sections of
society in October 2010 after a four-month spell of violence on the
streets of Kashmir—said in their report: “The State’s distinctive status
guaranteed by Article 370 must be upheld. Its “erosion” over the
decades must be re-appraised to vest it with such powers as the State
needs to promote the welfare of the people on its own terms.”

On May 27, 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh become the first
Indian Prime Minister in 25 years to visit Myanmar— to boost trade,
connectivity, security and energy cooperation. He flew down to Nay Pyi
Taw, the new capital of the country.

On May 7, 2012, France handed the
Presidency to leftist Francois Hollande, a champion of government
stimulus programs who says the State should protect the down-trodden.
Hollande narrowly defeated the hard-driving, attention-getting Nicolas
Sarkozy, an America-friendly leader who led France through its worst
economic troubles since World War II, but whose policies and personality
proved too bitter for many voters to swallow.

On May 1, 2012, making his way into Afghanistan unannounced, US
President Barack Obama signed a landmark Strategic Partnership
Agreement, strengthening post-war ties with Kabul after 2014, when
American combat forces return home. The ten-page long-term agreement
pledges US support for Afghanistan for a decade after 2014, when NATO
forces are planning to conclude their combat role.

Leaders from around the world
gathered in Chicago on May 20-21, 2012, for the NATO summit, hosted by
President Barack Obama. This was the first time ever that a NATO summit
in the United States was held outside of the nation's capital,
Washington.

The G-8 Summit was held on May 18-19, 2012, at Camp David, USA. This
was the first G8 summit which the Russian head of state Vladimir
Putin did not attend. Dmitry Medvedev, the Prime Minister of
Russia attended instead. The summit was intended as a venue for
resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the
summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each
other mutual encouragement.

According to the 66th round of
National Sample Survey (NSS), around 60 per cent of India’s rural
population lives on less than Rs 35 a day and nearly as many in cities
live on Rs 66 a day. The poorest 10 per cent of the rural population
lives on Rs 15 a day, while in urban areas the figure is shade better at
Rs 20 per day. All-India average Monthly Per Capita Consumer
Expenditure (MPCE) in rural areas is Rs 1.054 and urban area is Rs
1,984. The average MPCS in rural areas is lowest in Bihar (Rs 780),
followed by Orissa and Jharkhand at Rs 820. Kerala has the highest rural
MPCE at Rs 1,835, followed by Punjab (Rs 1,649) and Haryana (Rs 1,510).
The highest urban MPCE is in Maharashtra (Rs 2,437), followed by Kerala
(Rs 2,413) and Haryana (Rs 2,321). It is lowest in Bihar (Rs 1,238).

Setting a new record, Edvard Munch’s iconic 1895 painting “The
Scream”, considered one of the most recognisable in art world, was sold
for nearly USD 120 million, the highest price ever paid for a work of
art at any auction. Before this, Pablo Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and
Bust” was the most expensive painting ever sold.

An athlete biological passport is
an individual, electronic record for professional athletes, in which
profiles of biological markers of doping and results of doping tests are
collated over a period of time. Doping violations can be detected by
noting variances from an athlete’s established levels outside
permissible limits, rather than testing for and identifying illegal
substances. Portuguese long distance runner Helder Ornelas has become
the first athlete to be found guilty of doping, using the athlete
biological passport.

According to the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) study,
just 3.5 households per 1,000 families had access to Internet services
at home in rural areas in 2009-10.However, in urban areas, Internet
connectivity was much better at 59.5 families out of every 1,000
households.Maharashtra was on top with 104 out of 1,000 families having
Internet in cities, followed by Kerala and Himachal Pradesh at 95 each
and Haryana at 81.5.The penetration of digital services was highest in
rural areas in Goa with 50 out of 1,000 households having Internet
connection. Kerala came next with 34 families having such a facility at
home.

National Technology Day is celebrated on May 11.

Anti-Terrorism Day is observed in India on May 21.

World No Tobacco day is observed on May 31.

May 13, 1952, the first day of the first the Lok Sabha session, was
dedicated to the oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected house of 499
members. G.V. Mavalankar was in the Chair when Prime Minister Jawahar
Lal Nehru became the first MP to take oath. The first woman MP to take
oath was a tribal, B. Khongmen. The first woman to speak in the Lok
Sabha was Sucheta Kripalani, MP from New Delhi. The very first speech in
Hindi was made in the Lok Sabha by N.L. Sharma of Sikar constituency.
The first Lok Sabha sat for 759 days in five years (an average of 150
days a year) to pass 299 legislations. Today, average sitting of Houses
is down to around 60 days a year.

The world’s tallest tower and
Tokyo’s biggest new landmark is the Tokyo Sky Tree, which opened to the
public on May 22, 2012.It is recognized by Guinness World Records as the
tallest tower (634 metres), beating out the Canton Tower in China (600
meters). The world’s tallest structure is Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (828
meters). The Sky Tree will serve as a broadcast tower for television and
radio, along with being a tourist attraction.

The debt burden on every Indian—in the form of government’s
debt—went up by 23% in 2011-12. The per capita debt in India, as on
March 31, 2012, is estimated at Rs 33,0000, compared to a little over Rs
26,600 a year ago.

The Union government has now
permitted residents of Gulf nations and all EU nations to invest
directly in stock markets and allowed individual overseas investors
(also known as Qualified Institutional Investors) to bring up to $1
billion in debt market.

The objectives of the restructured PURA Scheme (Provision of Urban
amenities in Rural Areas) or PURA 2.0 are provision of urban amenities
and livelihood opportunities in rural areas which are now rapidly
urbanising, to bridge the rural-urban divide. It is to be implemented
through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between Gram Panchayat(s) and
the private sector.

State Bank of India has opened a
“Yuva” branch in the posh Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad, to
exclusively cater to the requirements of the youth. A coffee bar, gaming
console and a self-service kiosk for cash deposits, passbook updates
and other services greet the customers at the entrance, bringing a
welcome change to the staid image of a conventional bank. The “Yuva”
branch is aimed at catering to the sensibilities and requirements of
young adults below the age of 35.

Facebook made its Wall Street debut on May 18, 2012 with stock
priced at US$ 38. It raided about US$ 16 billion in one of the biggest
initial public offerings in US history. With a value of US$ 104 billion,
Facebook is larger than Starbucks Corp and Hewlett-Packard combined.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest
mobile operator, announced the acquisition of 49 per cent stake in US
telecom major Qualcomm’s broadband wireless access company for an
initial investment of $165 million (Rs 907 crore). With this move,
Bharti Airtel became a key player in the 4G LTE market, with a presence
in 8 of the 22 circles in the country.

JUNE
On June 5, 2012, announcing the annual Foreign Trade Policy,
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said the sops would continue
for exporters in sectors like capital goods and textiles to help them
mitigate the impact of “fragile” recovery of global economy. Aiming to
provide some relief to exporters hurt by global slowdown, the government
has extended DEPB (Duty Entitlement Pass Book) scheme for six months or
till June 30, 2011. Under this scheme, the government reimburses duties
on imported inputs used in exports. The government has retained the
$500-billion target for exports in 2013-14. This would entail a hefty 39
per cent growth in exports in 2013-14. Exports expanded by 21 per cent
in 2011-12.

On June 13, 2012, the Supreme Court
refused to provide any relief to the government on the controversial
4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities. The Supreme court upheld the
Andhra Pradesh High Court verdict striking down the December 22, 2011,
executive order offering the sub-quota, carved out from the 27 per cent
reservation for OBCs in educational institutions.

The third US-India Strategic Dialogue was held in the month of June
2012 during the visit of India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna
to USA. The Obama administration’s decision to exempt India from
sanctions for its oil imports from Iran and the signing of a memorandum
of understanding that paves the way for a US firm to construct nuclear
power plants in Gujarat helped lift the mood during the meeting.

In a reversal of fortunes
unthinkable a year and a half ago, an Islamist jailed by Hosni Mubarak
succeeded him as President of Egypt. Muslim Brotherhood candidate,
Mohamed Morsy promised a moderate, modern Islamist agenda to steer Egypt
into a new democratic era, where autocracy will be replaced by
transparent government that respects human rights and revives the
fortunes of a powerful Arab State long in decline.

Against the backdrop of Beijing’s aggressive posturing on the South
China Sea issue, India, Japan and South Korea launched a trilateral
dialogue on June 29, 2012, expressing their commitment to maintaining
freedom of the seas, combating terrorism and promoting inclusive growth.
While kick-starting the dialogue, the three countries also took note of
the fact that they were all democracies of Asia which shared a
commitment to democratic values, open society, human rights and the rule
of law.

The 2012 G-20 Summit was held at
beach resort of Los Cabos, Mexico. The dangers that Europe’s escalating
debt crisis would drive the global economy back into recession for the
second time in less than four years dominated the summit of G-20 leaders
of industrialized and developing nations, which represent over 80
percent of world output. Among commitments in a draft communiqué was a
pledge to consider concrete steps towards a “more integrated financial
architecture” in Europe that would include common banking supervision,
resolution of failed banks and guarantees for bank depositors.

In a huge victory for emerging countries like India and Brazil, the
world leaders adopted “The Future We Want” declaration on sustainable
development on June 22, 2012, the final day of Rio+20 conference, as the
UN obtained pledges worth $513 billion from governments and private
companies for projects that cut fossil fuel use, boost renewable energy,
conserve water and alleviate poverty.

The Rio+20 was held exactly 20
years after the landmark 1992 Earth Summit, which had put environmental
issues on the world table for the first time. In what may have major
implications for India, the summit ended with a commitment that the
developing countries needed additional resources for sustainable
development and no extra conditions be imposed on them for financial aid
from rich nations. The Rio+20 document clarified that the eradication
of poverty is the top priority and shifting to green economy can’t put
extra financial burden on the emerging and developing economies, a point
pushed very hard by the Indian delegation, who worked closely with
China and summit host Brazil.

Urbanisation will lead to the creation of one billion new city
consumers by 2025, according to a study by McKinsey Global Institute
(MGI). The study said these will live in some 440 dynamic emerging
market cities (the ‘Emerging 440’), that are set to generate close to
half (47 per cent) of expected global GDP growth between 2010 and 2025.
Among these, 36 cities are from India.

Some 27 million people worldwide
are problem drug users, with almost one percent of them dying every year
from narcotics abuse, according to the 2012 World Drug Report of the UN
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Global production and use of illegal
drugs remained relatively stable in 2011, the report found. However,
this masked shifts in trafficking and consumption that were “significant
and also worrying... because they are proof of the resilience and
adaptability of illicit drug suppliers and users,” the UNODC warned.
Cannabis remained the most widely used drug with up to 224 million users
worldwide, although production figures were hard to obtain. Europe was
the biggest market for cannabis resin, most of it coming from Morocco,
although Afghanistan is becoming a major supplier and domestic
production in Europe is also rising.

Bihar has emerged as the fastest growing State for the second year
running, clocking a scorching 13.1% growth in 2011-12. Among the top
five States, Bihar is followed by Delhi (11.3%), Puducherry (11%),
Chhattisgarh (10.8%) and Goa (10.7%).

On June 3, 2012, a total of 5,406
guitarists strummed one of the timeless tunes of Late Dr Bhupen Hazarika
(“bistrinna parore akhyansha janare …”) in the lawns of National Games
stadium in Guwahati to script a new Limca Book of Records.

World Environment Day is observed on June 5.

World Anti-Counterfeiting Day is observed on June 7.

World Day Against Child Labour is observed on June 12.

World Blood Donors Day is observed on June 14.

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day is observed on June 15.

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is observed on June 26.

Euro 2012 football tournament was jointly hosted by Poland and
Ukraine in June-July 2012. For the first time since its inception in
1960, the championship was held in the former Soviet Union controlled
States.

The Union government has decided to
make Navi Mumbai, Goa and Kannur as Greenfield airports. It has also
decided to turn Delhi and Chennai into airline hubs.

An ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) team has become the first
Indian mountaineering team to ski down the Mount Everest. The
eight-member team had reached the summit on May 19, 2012.

Indian Placement Reporting
Standards (IPRS), promoted by the Indian Institute of Management,
Ahmedabad, aims to bring transparency in reporting placement data.

A new measure of “inclusive wealth”, which stretches beyond Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) and the Human development Index (HDI), puts India
sixth from the top of the 20 selected countries, the economic
performance of which was assessed between 1990 and 2008. India’s rise of
4.3 per cent per year in GDP per capita in this period came second only
to China, which stood at 9.6 per cent. The Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI)
looks at a full range of assets, such as manufactured, human and
natural capital, which indicates a country’s true wealth and
sustainability.

In the latest ranking of failed
States, compiled by the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine, African
countries—Somalia, Congo, Sudan, Chad and Zimbabwe, top the list.
Pakistan is ranked 13th. Afghanistan is ranked 6th.

The rail-cum-road Saraighat Bridge over Brahmaputra connects the
North-East with rest of India. It was the first bridge to be built
across the might river and was inaugurated in June 1963 by Pt.
Jawaharlal Nehru. The name Saraighat refers to a historic battleground
where Ahom General Lachit Borphukon defeated the invading Mughal army in
fiercely fought battle in 1671.

Reliance Brands, a unit of energy
major Reliance Industries, is bringing the oldest American men’s
clothier chain Brooks Brothers to India. Brooks Brothers is owned by
Italian billionaire Claudio del Vecchio, son of founder of Luxottica,
the world’s largest eye-wear company whose brands include Ray-Ban and
Oakley.

MediaPro, the Star-Zee joint venture that controls the distribution
of 78 channels will now have to face serious competition from IndiaCast,
which is a TV18 and Viacom18 joint venture to create a platform to
distribute nearly 57 channels.

The Coca Cola Company has announced a further $3 billion in investment in India over the next eight years.

Gaana.com is the first full-fledged music streaming application for
India’s store of Windows 8 Release Preview. It is also the first music
serving application for Surface (tablet from Microsoft) in India.

In one of the biggest investments
in single brand retail sector in India, Swedish-based IKEA, the world’s
largest furniture maker, has decided to invest Rs 10,500 crore in the
Indian market.

The world’s largest provider of web hosting services, domain name
registrations and new secure socket layer certificates, Go Daddy, has
launched operation in India.

On June 18, 2012, Microsoft
unveiled Surface, its first Tablet, to take on Apple’s I-pad. Two
decades after a fierce battle for the PC market, Microsoft and Apple are
now set to slug it out for control of the Tablet segment.

JULY
The Annual Health Survey (AHS), 2011, reveals India’s poor progress
in population stabilisation. It also questions target delivery under the
multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) that is supposed to
meet contraception needs of women. It shows that one in five women in
the country’s nine high population States has no access to
contraceptives though they need these. AHS covered 20.1 million persons
in 284 districts and gives data for 161 indicators, including child
marriage and abortion. It found child marriage rampant—every 4th
marriage of women in rural Rajasthan and every 5th in Bihar and
Jharkhand is before the legal age of 18. Only 20 of the 284 districts in
high population States have so far met population stabilisation goals.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
assured his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong of India’s commitment
to reinforce its status as an investment-friendly destination as the two
countries signed three accords, including one for the conduct of joint
military training and exercises in India, on July 11, 2012, during Lee’s
State visit to India.

Washington declared Afghanistan a major non-NATO ally, a largely
symbolic status reinforcing its message to Afghans that they will not be
abandoned as the war winds down. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
announced the decision, made by President Barack Obama, during her
unannounced visit to Kabul, on July 6, 2012.

Representatives of nearly 70
nations and international organisations, at the Tokyo meeting on July 7,
2012, pledged to give Afghanistan $16 billion for civilian needs over
the next four years to prevent instability and chaos that may follow
after foreign troops leave that country.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has made electronic filing
of tax returns mandatory for income more than Rs 10 lakh.

The eco-sensitive Western Ghats
along the west coast of India have been included on the coveted list of
World Heritage Sites, maintained by UNESCO. Spread over nearly 8,000 sq
km, spanning Gujarat, Maharashtra (known as the Sahyadris in the State),
Karnataka, goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the Western Ghats are between
60-160 km at the narrowest end-points, harbouring a wealth of flora and
fauna. Older than the Himalayas, the mountain chain represents
geomorphic features of immense importance.

India has jumped to the second position in the Global Innovation
Efficiency Index in 2012, from 9th position in 2011. China topped the
list. Countries which are strong in producing innovation outputs despite
a weaker innovation environment and inputs are poised to rank high in
the efficiency index, prepared by CII, Alcatel-Lucent and Booz & Co.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set up a four-member committee to
formulate fresh guidelines on the anti-tax avoidance proposal of General
Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR). The committee was headed by Indian Council
for Research on International economic Relations (ICRIER) chief and
taxation expert Parthasarathi Shome.

UNESCO gave its nod to house a
Category-1 institute in New Delhi, making India the first country in
Asia-Pacific to house such an institute, which has been named as the
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable
Development.

Production of foodgrains in India, in 2011-12, was all-time high 257.44 million tonnes.

The 19th International AIDS Conference was held in Washington in July 2012.

Reserve Bank of India, in its quarterly review, announced a cut in
the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) for banks by one percentage point,
to 23% from 24%. The cut in SLR, which is essentially the proportion of
deposits that banks invest in government bonds, will enable banks to
shift money from low-yielding bonds to retail loans, resulting in some
loans getting cheaper.

The National Housing Bank (NHB)
announced the formation of the Indian Mortgage Guarantee Company, a
joint venture of the US-based financial security company Genworth, Asian
Development Bank and International Finance Corporation. This is the
first mortgage guarantee company in India. The company will help
mortgage lenders avoid pilling up of bad debts in case of borrower’s
default.

Yahoo! Inc. appointed Marissa Mayer as its CEO—fifth CEO in four years.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) formally incorporated a
new firm to enter aerospace and defence ventures. The new company is
Reliance Aerospace Technologies Pvt Ltd. Dr Vivek Lall (43), one of
India’s most respected aerospace expert, has been appointed as the head
of the new company.

Sahara Group agreed to buy a
controlling stake in new York’s landmark Plaza Hotel for $570 million.
The 105-year-old luxury hotel, overlooking the New York’s Central Park,
is jointly owned by Elad Properties, an Israeli-owned real estate
company, and Saudi-based Kingdom holdings company.

AUGUST
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in its report on
coal block allocations, alleged that government’s failure to introduce
competitive bidding process in the allocation had caused financial gains
of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore to private coal block allottees. The report,
titled “Allocation of Coal Blocks and Augmentation of Coal Production”
was tabled in the Parliament on August 17, 2012. It said a part of this
financial gain could have come to the government. The loss figure
of Rs. 1.86 lakh crore was arrived at by the auditor in respect of 57
open cast or mixed coal mines allocated to private parties. The report
names 25 companies that were beneficiaries and include the names such as
Essar Power, Jindal Steel and Power, Hindalco, Tata Power, DB Power,
Adani Power, CESC, Monnet Ispat, Rungta Mines, Mukund and Tata Steel.

A US court jury ordered Samsung to
pay USD one billion to Apple Inc. for ripping off Apple technology. The
Silicon Valley jury found that some of Samsung’s products illegally
copied features and designs exclusive to Apple’s iPhone and iPad. The
verdict was narrowly tailored to only Samsung, which sold more than 22
million smartphones and tablets that Apple claimed used its technology,
including the “bounce-back” feature when a user scrolls to an end image,
and the ability to zoom text with a tap of a finger.

A new report, released by The Stockholm International Water
Institute, “Feeding a thirsty world: Challenges and opportunities for a
water and food secure world”, outlined major threats and opportunities
for water and food security. Authored by a dozen experts from SIWI, the
Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations (FAO) and the
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), the report provides new
evidence that shows how continuing current trends in food production
could lead to increased shortages and intense competition for scarce
water resources in many regions across the world.

The 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
Summit, attended by 118 member-States, concluded in the Iranian capital
of Tehran on August 31, 2012, after the adoption of the outcome
documents which lay emphasis on peace. Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, the rotating chairman of the summit, read part of the final
documents at the closing ceremony of the event, and said that the
participants unanimously expressed their commitments to the principles
and objectives of the NAM.

With 19 medals, Michael Phelps now holds the record for most Olympic medals won by an individual.

Saina Nehwal’s bronze medal at
London Olympics was India’s first Olympic medal in the sport. Nehwal is
only the second Indian woman to win an Olympic medal after weightlifter
K. Malleswari.

Mary Kom, who created history by becoming the first Indian woman
boxer to win an Olympic medal, was India’s flag-bearer at the closing
ceremony of the London Olympics.

Oscar Pistorius became the first double amputee to compete at Olympics when he participated in the 400m race in London Olympics.

The Union Cabinet set the reserve price for auction of 2G spectrum
at Rs 14,000 crore for the 5 megahertz pan-India spectrum in 1800
megahertz band. The price is expected to lead to hike in tariffs for
consumers. The operators who bag the spectrum will have to pay one-third
of the payment upfront and balance in 10 equal yearly installments
after a moratorium of two years.

International Youth Day is observed on August 12.

World Photography Day is celebrated on August 19.

According to World Bank data,
India’s proportion of public expenditure to total spending on health is
at 29.2 per cent, much lower than the global average of 62.8 per cent,
as also sub-Saharan Africa’s 45.3 per cent. India spends only 4.1 per
cent of its GDP on health, against a global average of 10.4 per cent.

The oversight panel for India’s showcase KG Basin gas field off the
Andhra coast has given Reliance industries (RIL) and BP Plc permission
to pump over $1 billion into the flagging field, but with a rider that
three satellite gas finds would be declared viable only if they drill
more wells at their own expense.

Karl Slym, former GM India Managing Director, has taken over as the Managing Director of Tata Motors.

Apple has become the world’s most valuable company, ever. Its
surging stock has propelled the company’s value to $623 billion, beating
the record for market capitalization set by Microsoft in the heady days
of the internet boom.

SEPTEMBER
India moved one step closer to protecting millions of its working
women from sexual harassment by passing a new Bill to tackle unwelcome
behaviour such as sexual advances, requests for sexual favours and
sexual innuendoes made at work. The Protection of Women against Sexual
Harassment at Workplace Bill was passed by Lok Sabha on September 3,
2012, and aims to ensure a safe environment for women working in both
the public and private sector. This Bill will contribute to realisation
of a woman's right to equality, life and liberty in working conditions
everywhere.

North-Eastern Areas
(Reorganisation) Amendment Bill, 2011 provides for separate High Courts
for Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura. At present the Gauhati High Court is
common court of the three States. The Bill also seeks to bifurcate the
civil services cadres of Manipur and Tripura.

Full Planning Commission, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
on September 15, 2012, approved 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) document
that proposes to lower annual average economic growth rate target during
the period to 8.2 per cent, from 9 per cent envisaged earlier in view
of fragile recovery. The 12th Plan seeks to raise the economic growth
rate to 8.2 per cent from 7.9 per cent recorded in the previous Plan.
This, however, is lower than the 9 per cent target envisaged in 2011.

During the 11th Plan (2007-12),
India recorded an average economic growth rate of 7.9 per cent. This,
however, is lower than the 9 per cent targeted in 11th Plan. Besides
other things, the 12th Plan seeks to achieve 4 per cent agriculture
sector growth during 2012-17. The growth target for manufacturing sector
has been pegged at 10 per cent. The total plan size has been estimated
at Rs 47.7 lakh crore, 135 per cent more that for the 11th Plan
(2007-12). As regards to poverty alleviation, the Commission aims to
bring down the poverty ratio by 10 per cent. At present, 30 per cent of
the population is below poverty line.

The Kelkar committee, headed by former Finance Secretary Vijay
Kelkar, has recommended to the government to eliminate various subsidies
in phases, by hiking prices of LPG, kerosene, diesel and foodgrains by
one-third by 2014-15 to deal with the deteriorating fiscal situation.
On disinvestment side, the Committee said that in absence of adequate
steps the government will be able to raise around Rs 10,000 crore, as
against the target of Rs 30,000 crore. The budget target of Rs 30,000
crore, the panel said, could be met by the government by selling
minority stakes in companies like SUUTI, Hindustan Zinc and Balco. It
further said that the funds from the monetisation of surplus government
land could be made available to fund infrastructure needs of the
country. The Kelkar panel cautioned that absence of quick credible steps
to correct fiscal situation will result in sovereign credit downgrade
and flight of foreign capital.

On September 13, 2012, the US
Central Bank said it will launch a fresh round of bond-buying to
stimulate the economy, purchasing $40 billion of mortgage debt each
month until the outlook for jobs improves substantially. Under
QUANTITATIVE EASING the central bank buys large amounts of assets—in
this case, bonds backed by housing mortgages—in an effort to bring down
interest rates and boost the economy. The Federal Reserve has tried
quantitative easing twice before, thus earning this round the
designation QE3.

Against the back-drop of the US drawing down most of its forces by
the end of 2014, Beijing, New Delhi and Islamabad are jockeying for
position in Afghanistan. In this regard, the first-ever triangular
meeting between the US, India and Afghanistan was held on September 25,
2012, in New York.

On September 23, 2012, China signed
security and economic agreements with Afghanistan during a rare trip to
Kabul by Mr Zhou Yongkang, China’s domestic security chief and a member
of the ruling Communist Party’s central Politburo. The deal is seen
aimed at bolstering Beijing’s influence ahead of a NATO withdrawal of
most combat forces by 2014.

At the end of the two-day APEC Summit, which concluded on September
9, 2012, at an island off Russian port city of Vladivostok, Asia-Pacific
nations, including China, the United States and Japan, promised
measures to boost growth. However, they rejected limits on food exports
to try to revive the flagging global economy. The 21 members of the
Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group also agreed to slash
import duties on “green technology”, take steps to bolster growth, and
liberalise trade to counter problems heightened by Europe’s debt crisis.
APEC, which also groups Malaysia, Indonesia, Canada and South Korea,
makes decisions by consensus and its moves are not binding. But its
influence is growing as Europe’s declines.

The Parthasarathi Shome Committee
report on General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) recommended the
postponement of GAAR by three years and abolition of short-term capital
gains tax.

According to the United Nations Children Fund report, India has
earned the dubious distinction of reporting the highest mortality rate
of under-five children in 2011. The report states that 16.55 lakh
children below the age five died in India in 2011—almost six times
higher than China. While India has made a lot of progress with a 48%
decline in death rate, its performance was much lower than poorer
countries such as Bangladesh, Rwanda, Nepal and Malawi. Globally, the
under-five child mortality rate has come down from nearly 12 million in
1990 to 6.9 million in 2011.

RBI cut Cash Reserve Ration (CRR)
by 0.25 per cent to 4.5 per cent on September 17, 2012. The CRR is the
share of deposits that banks need to maintain with RBI. Banks ca profit
by deploying Rs 17,000 crore released due to the CRR cut. The cut will
also lead to interest rates on deposits coming down.

Oslo is the world’s most expensive city, ahead of Zurich and Tokyo,
according to a survey of 72 cities by Swiss Bak. The cheapest cities are
Delhi and Mumbai.

World Heart Day is observed on September 29.

According to a UN Report on “aging in the 21st century”, and Help
Age International, brought out jointly by Un Population fund (UNFPA)
India has 90 million elderly and the number is expected to increase to
315 million by 2050, constituting 20% of the total population. By 2050,
for the first time there will be more older people than children under
15.

According to a research by Thomson
Reuters, just 3.5% of global research output in 2010 was from India. In
mathematics, India’s share of world output stood at around 2% in 2010;
it was 17% for China. Only 2.4% of global research in Computer Sciences
was from India, while the world share moved to three emerging
economies—China (15%), South Korea (6.3%) and Taiwan (5.7%).

The Union Cabinet has approved thr 12th Five-Year Plan, aimed at
rejuvenating India’s economy and infusing higher government funding in
key social sectors such as health, education and sanitation. The Rs
47,70,000 lakh crore Plan, three times the size of the last one, targets
economic growth at 8.2%. It also aims to attract one trillion USD
private investment in the infrastructure sector and reduce the subsidy
burden of the government to around 1.5% of GDP, from over 2% of GDP now.

The UN Convention of Biodiversity was held in Hyderabad in September 2012.

The Nagoya Protocol on Access and
Benefit Sharing, negotiated in 2010, sets the standards for benefit
sharing between industry and holders of traditional knowledge. The
objective of the protocol is fair and equitable sharing of benefits
arising from the use of genetic resources. It has been signed by 92
countries but only five countries have ratified it so far. India has
approved the ratification of the protocol.

October 5, 2012, was branded as “Global James Bond Day” to mark 50
years since the world premiere of “Dr No” which introduced author Ian
Fleming’s suave, sophisticated secret agent to the masses.

Online marketplace is an e-commerce
site where product and inventory information are provided by multiple
third-parties. In an online marketplace, consumer transactions are
processed by the marketplace operator and then delivered and fulfilled
by the participating retailers.

An average Indian lived 4.6 years longer in 2008, compared with a
decade earlier. Life expectancy at birth for women was 67.7 years in
2008. It stood at 64.6 for men.

The Kelkar Committee was set up by
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to chalk out a roadmap for fiscal
consolidation. It was headed by Mr Vijay Kelkar, former Finance
Secretary. The report was warned there is an urgent need to take
immediate corrective measures to fix the fiscal deficit to prevent the
economy from slipping in to a situation worse than 1991.

Infosys announced acquisition of Lodestone Holding, s
Switzerland-based global management consultancy firm, for an enterprise
value of Rs 1,930 crore in cash. Infosys has also acquired the Voluntary
Group Life Insurance business of US-based Marsh BPO.

Software services provider Tech
Mahindra announced the acquisition of a 51% stake in mobile value added
services provider Comviva, in which Bharti Airtel has a major stake.

Infiniti Retail Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons,
announced decision to acquire Australian retailer Woolworths’ wholesale
arm in India for about Rs 200 crore. The acquisition comes in the wake
of the Australian firm deciding to exit the specialty consumer
electronics category and divest the business in Australia and New
Zealand as well, apart from India.

Former Chairman of LIC, S.B. Mathur, was appointed as the Chairman of National Stock Exchange (NSE).

OCTOBER
On October 29, 2012, Finance Minister P Chidambaram unveiled plans
to reduce India’s fiscal deficit to 3% of GDP in five years,
demonstrating the government’s intent to walk the talk on budgetary
discipline amid hopes that his roadmap will serve as a cue for the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to cut policy interest rates. Chidambaram’s
plan draws from the recommendations that a committee headed by former
finance secretary Vijay Kelkar had laid out in a recent report. It
called for a heavy cut in subsidies, and controls on government
expenditure. The five-year plan involves reining in the fiscal deficit
to 5.3% of GDP in this fiscal year, 4.8% the next year and gradually
narrowing it down to 3% by 2016-17.

On October 30, 2012, the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) left the key policy rate unchanged at eight per
cent, defying pressure from the finance ministry to lower rates. The
central bank, however, cut the cash reserve ratio (CRR), the portion of
deposits banks have to maintain with it, to 4.25 per cent, freeing up Rs
17,500 crore of additional funds.

A new report, titled ‘Global Hunger Index 2012, states that India
ranks 65th out of 79 countries on a global hunger index. The country
lags behind neighbouring Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka in reducing hunger
level. The report, released by three organisations, the International
Food Policy Research Institute, Welt Hunger Hilfe and Concern Worldwide,
states “India has lagged behind in improving its GHI score despite
economic growth”. The index that reflects the multidimensional nature of
hunger, accounts for child mortality, the proportion of undernourished
people in the population and the percentage of children under the age of
five who are underweight.

On October 17, 2012, during the
visit of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to India, both
countries decided to set aside past indifference and announced their
decision to enter into civil nuclear cooperation by negotiating a
safeguards agreement which will facilitate export of uranium to India.
After official talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Australian PM
Julia Gillard said this decision meant a lot to her personally as only
last year, her Labour Party had overturned the ban on selling uranium to
India. The two countries also signed four agreements—including one for
student mobility and welfare—and agreed to hold annual meetings at the
summit level, either bilaterally or during multilateral events.

On October 15, 2012, Scotland set up a historic independence
referendum after its leader and Britain’s PM finalised arrangements for a
vote that could lead to the demise of its three-centuries-old union
with England. Scotland's drive for sovereignty, led by its nationalist
leader Alex Salmond, echoes separatist moves by other European regions
such as Catalonia and Flanders which feel they could prosper as separate
entities inside the European Union. Signed in the Scottish capital
Edinburgh, the referendum agreement allows Scotland to ask its people in
a 2014 vote whether their homeland should become an independent country
or stay within the United Kingdom.

October 11, 2012 was observed as the first International Day of the Girl Child.

On October 30, 2012, Reserve Bank of India reduced the cash reserve
ratio (CRR)—proportion of deposits that banks have to park with RBI) by
0.25 percentage points. RBI, however, kept the repo rate—at which banks
borrow—unchanged at 8 percent. Following the CRR cut Rs 17,500 crore
extra became available with Banks to lend.

The 103-year-old Indian Institute
of Science (IISc) is the only Indian institution to figure in the Global
Employability List 2012. The Bangalore-based research institute has
moved up from rank 134 to 35. The list includes top-notch institutions
like Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford and Stanford in its top 10.

INDIAEX-2012 was the Indo-US submarine rescue exercise which was held in October 2012, off the coast of Mumbai.

National Customer Care Day is observed on October 23.

World Post Day is celebrated on October 9.

The Union government is planning to
create an Expressway Authority of India to formulate and implement a
master plan to build 15,600 km of expressways at an estimated cost of Rs
156,000 crore. The government also proposed to set up a
company—National Expressways and Connectivity Corporation (NEXCOR)—under
the ministry of road transport, to speed up the development of the
expressways.

The C. Rangarajan committee has presented a road map of phased
decontrol of the sugar industry by suggesting removal of the levy
obligation, release mechanism and having a uniform, revenue-linked
sugarcane price. It has also favoured a free import-export regime, with a
duty of up to 10 per cent against the practice of a blanket ban or
quantitative restriction. The committee has also recommended abolishing
the 15/25 km distance criteria between two mills, doing away with the
jute packaging obligation and phasing out of sugarcane reservation area.

The Zaranj-Delaram road, connecting Afghanistan with Iran, was built by India in 2008.

Robert Iger-led Walt Disney has agreed to buy Lucasfilm and its “Star Wars” series in a $4 billion deal.

IDBI Bank has cleared a proposal to merge Stock Holding Corporation of India (SHICL) with the bank.

Two of English language’s hottest publishing labels, Penguin and
Random house, have decided to come together in a partnership to create
the world’s biggest consumer publisher.

Norwegian telecom firm Telenor has
signed Lakshdeep Investments & Finance as a partner for Telewings
Communications, its new venture in India. Lakshdeep is owned by Sudhir
Valia, who holds around 1% stake in Sun Pharmaceuticals.

Indian-American Rajat Gupta has been sentenced to two-years in jail
on Insider Trading charges by a US Court. Rajat Gupta is former global
head of McKinsey & Co.

Infrastructure Financing and
Project Development frim IL&FS is working on setting up a 4,000 MW
power plant in Gujarat. It will be the single-largest generation power
project of India.

RP Sanjiv Goenka Group has acquired a 34.5% stake in Firstsource
Solutions Ltd. With this acquisition the group has ventured into the
business process outsourcing (BPO) space.

Sidecar investment is described as
an investment strategy in which one investor allows a second investor to
control where and how to invest the capital. The sidecar investment
will usually be used when one of the parties lacks the ability or
confidence to invest for themselves. The strategy will place trust in
someone else’s ability to gain profits.

L&T Finance Holdings Ltd has acquired FamilyCredit Ltd, an auto
finance company, from its French parent for Rs 120 crore.

Mahindra & Mahindra has
launched Rexton SUV, its first product from its SsangYong stable.
SsangYong is a South Korean car manufacturer which has been purchased by
M&M.

US weekly magazine Newsweek has decided to publish its last print
edition on December 31, 2012 and move to an all-digital format in early
2013. The all-digital publication will be called Newsweek Global and
will be subscription based.

NOVEMBER
Life imprisonment implies a jail term for the convict’s entire life,
the Supreme Court has held, clearing a misconception on this
sentence. “It appears to us there is a misconception that a prisoner
serving a life sentence has an indefeasible right to be released on
completion of either fourteen years or twenty years imprisonment. The
prisoner has no such right”, a bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and
Madan B. Lokur said. The bench also clarified that under remission the
appropriate government cannot reduce the period of sentence less than 14
years for a life convict.

On November 29, 2012, Lok Sabha
approved a Bill to enlarge the definition of money-laundering offences.
The Bill seeks to include activities like cheating, concealment,
acquisition and use of proceeds of crime as criminal activities for the
purpose of money laundering.

Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper came on a State visit to
India from November 6, 2012. Agreement on social security, besides MoUs
on cooperation in information technology and electronics and for joint
research and development cooperation in defence science and technology
were signed during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India
and Canada also set a bilateral trade target of $15 billion by 2015,
besides agreeing to start a policy dialogue on financial sector to
facilitate mutual understanding of developments in the area. They also
concluded negotiations on a nuclear cooperation agreement that will take
Ottawa one step closer to starting uranium exports to India.

On November 12, 2012, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai had
extensive talks covering the entire spectrum of bilateral ties as well
as the challenges confronting the region after which India and
Afghanistan signed four MoUs in areas such as mines, fertilizers, youth
affairs and small development projects.

On November 26, 2012, India and China signed four MoUs in the areas
of energy efficiency, railways, planning and IT. The memorandums of
understanding were signed during a day-long second India-China Strategic
Economic Dialogue in New Delhi.

Despite the postponement of the
India-Japan annual summit, the two countries, on November 16, 2012,
signed an agreement which will allow Tokyo to import rare earth
minerals—important for Japan’s high-tech industry—from India. Under the
signed agreement, Japan will import over 4,000 tonnes of rare earth
minerals a year from India. This is Japan’s second deal this month to
diversify supply from China, for the metals used in mobile phones,
hybrid cars to missile guidance systems. Japan is hoping that the deal
with India will help reduce its reliance on China for rare earth
minerals at a time when it is involved in a conflict with Beijing over
the Senkaku islands. The two countries also signed a social security
pact.

The Union government is giving final touches to an elaborate cyber
security infrastructure wherein the proposed overarching body, National
Cyber Security Coordinator (NSCS), will act as the main edifice for
securing cyber systems, supported by four pillars the National Technical
Research Organization (NTRO) along with constituent National Critical
Information and Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC ), the Computer
Emergency Response Team (CERT-In ) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The first ever Reading Assessment
Survey among the youth of India, conducted by National Book Trust and
the National Institute of Applied Economic Research, reveals that only a
quarter of literate Indian youths (one in four) aged 13 to 35 years are
interested in reading anything other than textbooks; among the ones
doing leisure reading, Punjabi is the least preferred of languages.
Hindi is the most favoured for leisure readers who prefer fantasy novels
the most and current affairs magazines the least. Following Hindi among
the top 10 preferred languages for reading in the country are Marathi,
Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Malyalam and Gujarati. English is a distant
seventh, followed by Oriya and Assamese.

On November 15, 2012, Xi Jinping was crowned the new head of the
ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and the powerful military in a
smooth transition to steer the world's second largest economy over the
next decade, ending the 10-year reign of President Hu Jintao amid
concerns over rampant corruption and widening rich-poor divide. The
59-year-old Xi, who was the Vice President till now, will replace Hu as
President in March, while Li Keqiang, 57, will succeed Prime Minister
Wen Jiabao, capping years of jockeying within the CPC, the world's
biggest political party which has monopolised power here since 1949.

On November 24, 2012, Egyptian
President Mohamed Morsi assured his supporters that the country was on a
path of “freedom and democracy”, even as thousands of people staged
rival rallies across the polarized nation to both support and oppose his
move to assume sweeping powers. Morsi’s detractors dubbed him the ‘new
pharaoh’ , a day after he issued a declaration granting himself what
many said were more powers than even the ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Thousands of his supporters and opponents took to streets to stage rival
rallies across Egypt, leading to sporadic violence and burning down of
offices belonging to the ruling Muslim Brotherhood.

On November 30, 2012, an Islamist-led Assembly raced through
approval of a new constitution for Egypt to end a crisis over President
Mohamed Morsi’s expanded powers. Morsi said law decree halting court
challenges to his decisions, which provoked demonstrations and violence
from Egyptians fearing a new dictatorship less than two years after they
ousted Hosni Mubarak, was “for an exceptional stage. It will end as
soon as the people vote on a constitution”.

On November 29, 2012, the United
Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to recognise Palestine as a
State, in the face of opposition from Israel and the US. The 193-member
assembly voted 138 in favour of the plan, with only nine against and 41
abstentions. The scale of the defeat represented a strong and public
repudiation for Israel and the US, who find themselves out of step with
the rest of the world.

On November 7, 2012, Barack Hussein Obama was re-elected
President of the United States, beating a strong challenge by Republican
contender Mitt Romney. Barack Obama confounded political logic by
triumphing over a sluggish economy to win a second term in office. A
gruelling and often unpleasant campaign yielded, in the end, a decisive
victory, built on the strong foundations laid down months ago by his
crack campaign team.

On November 27, 2012, Greece won
big breathing space with agreement to restart long-frozen Euro Zone
loans from December and a first clear admission that a chunk of the
country’s debt burden will need to be written off down the line. After
13 hours of talks in Brussels, the Euro Zone and the International
Monetary Fund agreed to unlock 43.7 billion euros ($56 billion) in loans
and on the need to grant significant debt relief going forward for
decades to come.

On November 19, 2012, Barack Obama became the first American
President to visit Myanmar, using a six-hour trip to balance US praise
for the government’s progress in shaking off military rule with pressure
to complete the process of democratic reform. Obama, greeted by
enthusiastic crowds in the former capital, Yangon, met President Thein
Sein, a former junta member who has spearheaded reforms since taking
office in March 2011, and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The 7th East Asia Summit (EAS) was
held at Peace Palace, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on November 20, 2012. The
meeting was chaired by Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUN SEN, Prime
Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, and attended by the Leaders of
ASEAN Member States, Prime Minister of Australia, Premier of the
People’s Republic of China, Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister of
Japan, Prime Minister of New Zealand, President of the Republic of
Korea, Foreign Minister, representing President Vladimir Putin, of
Russia Federation President of the United States of America. The EAS
Leaders discussed a wide range of issues, including the review and
future direction of the EAS cooperation under six priority areas,
namely, environment and energy, education, finance, global health issues
and pandemic diseases, natural disaster mitigation and ASEAN
connectivity.

Cheque Truncation System (CTS) is a process that will give banks the
freedom to avoid transporting a physical cheque from the presenting
bank (where the cheque is deposited) to the drawee bank (where it is
issued). As per the CTS, instead of a physical cheque, an electronic
image of the cheque will be sent to the drawee bank.

India is set to join talks for
creating the world’s largest trade bloc, the Regional Comprehensive
Partnership or RCEP, comprising ASEAN members, China, Japan and South
Korea as its initial members.

Nomura India has launched an index aimed at capturing the extent of
surprise or gap in key economic data releases, with respect to market
expectations. The Nomura Economic Surprises Index for India will be made
up of key numbers such as GDP, IIP, purchasing managers index, bonds,
currency and equity markets.

With the world commemorating
November 10 as ‘Malala Day’ in honour of Pakistani child activist Malala
Yousafzai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon extended his support to the
young girl and her fight for education, describing her as the “global
symbol” of every girl’s right to an education.UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy for Global Education,
former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said November 10, a month
after Yousafzai was shot at by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’
education in Pakistan, has been declared Malala Day.

‘Omnishambles’ has been chosen as word of the year by the Oxford
English Dictionary after it was coined by a BBC TV’s satirical political
series to describe a badly mismanaged situation and gaffes.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
and writer Katherine Boo has won the US national book award for
non-fiction, for “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope
in a Mumbai Undercity”, which sheds light on the lives of India’s poor
as well as government corruption.

Fiscal cliff is a newly coined term in USA, referring to the effect
of a number of laws which, if unchanged, could result in tax increases,
spending cuts, and a corresponding reduction in the budget
deficit beginning in 2013.

World Diabetics Day is observed on November 14.

World Aids Day is observed on December 1.

Soft drink giant Pepsi has become
the new title sponsors of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after it won
the bid for title rights for five years, at a whopping Rs 396 crore
sponsorship fee.

“Playing to Win” is the autobiography of Saina Nehwal, India’s star badminton player.

Punjabi film “Anhey Ghorey Da Daan”
(Alms of the Blind Horse) has bagged the Golden Peacock award for the
best film at the 43rd International Film Festival of India, held in Goa.
This is the first Punjabi film to win the prestigious IFFI award.

Kochi, Kerala, has become the first in India to get 1 gbps speed.
This kind of internet connectivity is available only at two places in
the world—the Startup Village at Kansas City in US and the Startup
Village in Kochi. The Kochi Startup Village is India’s first telecom
incubator. It focuses primarily on student start-ups from college
campuses.

The world’s longest married couple
is from India.107-year-old NRI Karam and his wife Katari Chand, 100,
have lived in wedded bliss for 87 years. Their names will soon be
included in the Guinness Book of World Records.

India assumed the Presidency of the UN Security Council on November
1, 2012, ahead of the expiry of its two-year term as a non-permanent
member on December 31, 2012.

Ratan Tata has stepped down as
Chairman of Tata Power, India’s largest electricity producer in the
private sector. Cyrus P. Mistry has been appointed as the new Chairman.

IndiaFirst, with a share capital of
Rs. 475 crore, is India’s youngest life insurance firm and is promoted
by two of India’s largest State-owned banks— Bank of Baroda and Andhra
Bank, along with Britain’s leading risk, wealth and investment company
Legal & General.

IT services giant Infosys has announced the launch of “India in a
Box”, a new solution for its Japanese clients. The solution is based on
industry-standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It enables Japanese companies
to jumpstart their business operations in India by moving to an IT
infrastructure in just eight weeks.

The Union government’s
single-window body to clear foreign investment proposals, FIPB, has
cleared Swedish furniture major Ikea’s Rs 10,500-crore project, the
largest FDI in single-brand retail so far. IKEA Group, which
manufactures and sells home and office furnishing products, proposes to
invest in single-brand retail trading in India through a 100 percent
subsidiary. IKEA’s proposes to set up 25 stores in India.

Ravi Narain, Managing Director and
CEO of National Stock Exchange (NSE), India’s largest bourse by
turnover, decided to step down from the post with effect from April 1,
2013. He will be replaced by Chitra Ramkrishna, currently joint MD of
NSE.

British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will invest around Rs 5,215
crore to increase its stake in its Indian consumer healthcare
subsidiary, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH) to 75% through
one of the largest share buybacks by an MNC. Product range of GSKCH
includes Horlicks and Boost, along with medicines like Crocin, Eno and
Iodex.

Multiplex chain operator PVR has
acquired a 69.3% stake of the promoters in Cinemax India in a bid to
widen its presence in the country. Cinemax, which was owned by the
Kanakia Group that has presence in real estate, education and
hospitality sector, sold its entire promoters’ stake to PVR for Rs 395
crore.

DECEMBER
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bank of Japan (BoJ)
concluded a three-year Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA) between India
and Japan. The BSA became effective as of December 4, 2012. The
arrangement aims at addressing short-term liquidity difficulties and
supplementing the existing international financial arrangements, as one
of the efforts in strengthening mutual cooperation between Japan and
India.

Congress bounced back to power in
the hill State, winning 36 out of the total 68 seats, while the ruling
BJP had to contend with 26. As expected, the Independents put up a good
show to bag five seats. The BJP breakaway group Himachal Lokhit Party,
which had floated the Third Front with the CPM and the CPI, could just
muster a solitary seat. The political aware electorate maintained the
three-decade old tradition of voting out the incumbent government and
gave a clear verdict in favour of the Congress, throwing aside all the
predictions of a hung House.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led the Bharatiya Janata Party
to a third consecutive win in the State Assembly elections, capturing
115 seats in the 182-member House, short by two seats from his 2007
performance of 117 seats While it was a hat-trick for Modi, a record by
any Chief Minister in the State so far, for the BJP it was the fifth
straight win since 1995. The Congress which again failed to dislodge the
BJP, ended with 61 seats along with its ally, the Nationalist Congress
Party, two better than 59 it won in the last elections.

A person may face criminal
proceedings if a cheque issued by him gets dishonoured on the ground
that his signature does not match the specimen signature available with
the bank. A Supreme Court bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Gyan Sudha
Mishra set aside the verdict of Gujarat High Court which had held that
criminal proceedings for dishonouring of cheque can be initiated only
when the cheque is dishonoured because of lack of sufficient amount in
the bank account and not in case where a cheque is returned due to
mismatch of signature of account holder.

On December 10, 2012, the Union government introduced a Bill in
Parliament to amend the Competition Act that would confer powers on fair
trade regulator—Competition Commission of India (CCI)—to vet all Merger
and Acquisition deals and also authorise its Director General to carry
out search and seizure activities. The DG is the investigating arm of
the CCI that keeps a tab on anti-competitive practices in the
marketplace. Currently, DG can ‘search and seize’ only after
authorisation from the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi. This is
under Section 41(3) of the Competition Act, 2002.

On December 17, 2012, the Rajya
Sabha passed with two-thirds majority the Constitution (117th Amendment)
Bill to provide for reservation in promotions to the Scheduled Castes
(SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs). The historic legislation was
adopted after a two-day debate with 194 members voting for it and 10
voting against it. Since the Bill sought to amend the Constitution, it
needed to be passed with a two-thirds majority. The Bill de-links the
term “efficiency of administration” from the claims of SCs/STs for jobs
and promotions, mentioned in Article 335. It seeks to amend at least
four articles of the Constitution to enable the government to provide
quotas in promotions to SCs and STs, who constitute about 25 per cent of
the country’s population.

On December 18, 2012, Lok Sabha voted to replace India’s 56-year-old
omnibus Companies Act with the Companies Bill, 2011, that brings the
management of the corporate sector in line with global norms. It
introduces concepts like responsible self-regulation with adequate
disclosure and accountability, ushers in enhanced shareholders’
participation and provides for a single forum to approve mergers and
acquisitions.

On December 20, 2012, Parliament
passed the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2012,
seeking to expand the definition of “terrorist act” to include offences
like counterfeiting of currency that threatens the country's economic
security. The Bill also extends the period of ban on an organisation
from two years to five years for which an association involved in
terrorist acts, including terror financing, would be declared unlawful.
The scope of punishment has been enlarged for raising funds likely to be
used (in full or in part) to commit a terrorist act or for the benefit
of terrorists—the offence is now punishable irrespective of whether the
funds have been raised from legitimate or illegitimate sources.

On December 18, 2012, the Lok Sabha passed the Banking (Amendment)
Bill, aimed at attracting more foreign investment into the banking
industry in yet another move by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to open up
Asia's third-largest economy. The Bill was passed after the government
agreed to drop the contentious Forwards Markets Contract Clause, which
proposed permitting banks to enter commodity futures trading. The
Opposition had claimed that allowing banks to trade in commodity futures
would lead to high-risk speculative trading, adding that the futures
trading watchdog—Forward Markets Commission (FMC)—lacks teeth to take
action on a potential substantial loss for investors. The passage of the
Bill was critical to the government as it paves the way for the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) to issue new banking licenses to the private
sector.

The two-day India-ASEAN summit was
held on December 20-21, 2012 at New Delhi. The “ASEAN-India Vision
Statement 2020”, which commits both sides to great security cooperation,
was adopted. Southeast Asian nations and India vowed to step up
cooperation on maritime security, a move that comes amid tension with
China in the potentially oil- and gas-rich South China Sea.

Setting aside their differences over civil nuclear cooperation and
Russian telecom giant Sistema’s investment, India and Russia, on
December 24, 2012, signed two key defence deals worth about Rs 25,000
crore for the supply of 42 new Su-30 MKI combat aircraft and 71 Mi-17V5
helicopters to this country. The two countries also inked other
agreements in fields, such as space, trade and investment, science and
technology, education and culture, reinforcing the strong dynamics of
their time-tested friendship. The pacts were concluded following the
13th annual India-Russia Summit between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the two leaders
discussed the entire gamut of bilateral ties as well as global
developments.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which
led Japan for most of the post-World War II era until it was dumped as
the economy fizzled in 2009, won 294 seats in the 480-seat lower house
of Parliament in December 16, 2012 elections. Shinzo Abe, who was Prime
Minister from 2006-2007 has been elected as the new Prime Minister.
Economic issues, including plans to raise taxes and other measures to
bolster Japan’s under-performing economy, were the top concerns among
voters.

On December 31, 2012, the White House reached an eleventh hour, New
Year’s Eve accord with Senate Republicans to neutralize across-the-board
tax increases and spending cuts in government programs that were due to
take effect at midnight. The Senate moved the US economy back from the
edge of a “fiscal cliff” on January 1, voting to avoid imminent tax
hikes and spending cuts in a bipartisan deal that could still face stiff
challenges in the House of Representatives. In a rare New Year's
session, senators voted 89-8 to raise some taxes on the wealthy while
making permanent low tax rates on the middle class that have been in
place for a decade. But the measure did little to rein in huge annual
budget deficits that have helped push the US debt to $16.4 trillion.
Without legislation, economists in and out of government had warned of a
possible new recession and spike in unemployment if the economy were
allowed to fall over the so-called fiscal cliff of tax increases and
spending cuts.

A report published by the Grantham
Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the Centre
for Climate Change Economics and Policy, co-authored by former World
Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern, has warned that the poor nations
must make haste to curb greenhouse gas emissions as even an impossible
zero-percent pollution target for the developed world by 2030 won’t stop
calamitous climate change. The report was issued on the sidelines of UN
climate talks in Doha, Qatar.

On December 8, 2012, the two week long climate talks in Doha came to
a close with 194 countries agreeing to implement a second phase of the
Kyoto Protocol, from 2013 through 2020. The Doha round of talks mark the
beginning of a transition to a new global climate change regime that
will come into effect from 2020 and include within its ambit all
countries. The outcome “Doha Climate Gateway” described as “historic” by
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change executive
secretary Christiana Figueres came 24 hours after the negotiations were
supposed to come to a close. The delay was on account of countries like
Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus demanding use of the extra credit or
assigned amount units commonly known as “hot air” that had been given
to them in the first phase of the Protocol, to deal with the breakdown
of their industrial structure due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This was the first time developing countries received such assurances,
and the first time the phrase “loss and damage from climate change” was
enshrined in an international legal document.

On December 13, 2012, flexing its
muscles, China, for the first time, sent a marine surveillance plane to
join its warships to monitor the disputed islands with Japan, forcing
Tokyo to scramble eight F-15 fighter jets. In the East China Sea, these
islands are claimed by China, Japan and Taiwan. Currently, these are
being administered by Tokyo. The islands are known as Diaoyu in China
and Senkaku by Japan. Ownership of these islands allows exclusive oil,
mineral, and fishing rights. Besides Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, China has
dispute on ownership of following islands in the South China sea:
Dokdo/Takeshima, Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands, Scarborough Shoal.

Five new species of freshwater fish called darters have been
discovered in river drainages in eastern North America and named after
four US Presidents (Including President Obama) and a Vice-President.
Darters are the smallest members of the perch family, and are named
after their ability to zip around, under and into rocks and sediment on
the beds of clean, fast-moving waterways.

In just 48 hours, an entrepreneur
has constructed a 10-floor building in Mohali, near Chandigarh. The
work on the building’s construction started around 4.30pm on November29,
2012, and by Friday evening the building saw seven floors in place. The
building has been named Instacon. The building used pre-fabricated
material, including 200 tonnes of steel. The material used was
manufactured in the past two months in a nearby factory.

Austria’s capital Vienna offers its residents the best quality of
life of any city in the world, and Baghdad the worst, according to the
latest global survey from consultant group Mercer. Canadian cities
dominated rankings in the Americas region, with Vancouver at number five
retaining the top spot and Honolulu at 28 the most pleasant U.S. urban
centre. New Zealand’s Auckland at number three is still atop the Asia
Pacific region’s charts, while Dubai at 73 gets best marks in the Middle
East and Africa.

Bangalore ranks better than New
Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata amongst Indian cities in overall
global quality of living index, according to a Mercer 2012 Quality of
Living Survey. Mercer conducts this survey annually to help
multinational companies and other organisations compensate employees
fairly when placing them on international assignments.

According to global ranking of best cities by infrastructure survey,
conducted by Mercer, Singapore is at the top of the index, followed by
Frankfurt and Munich. Copenhagen (4) and Dusseldorf (5) fill the next
two slots, while Hong Kong and London share sixth place. Port-au-Prince
(221) ranks at the bottom of the list.

The cost of aviation turbine fuel
(ATF) across the country is likely to come down by up to 25 per cent as
the Union government has decided to bring it under the purview of the
Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB). Bringing it under
PNGRB will make the pricing of jet fuel transparent and also check
cartelisation by oil companies. This will bring ATF prices in India at
par with airports such as Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore among others.
The government has also decided to push for bringing ATF under declared
goods, which will bring down the sales tax on ATF immediately to 4 per
cent from as high as 33 per cent.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi
have been named among the top 20 most powerful persons in the world by
Forbes magazine in its annual power rankings which placed US President
Barack Obama as number one for a second year in a row. India’s richest
businessman Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Arcelor
Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal also feature in the list that comprises 71
mighty heads of state, CEOs, entrepreneurs and philanthropists who
“truly run and shape the world of 7.1 billion people.” The second most
powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman,
German chancellor 58-year-old Angela Merkel. The list also includes
Russian President Vladimir Putin at number three, Microsoft co-founder
Bill Gates (4), General-Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi
Jinping (9), Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin (20), Iran’s
Supreme leader Ali Khamenei (21) UN chief Ban Ki-moon (30), North Korean
leader Kim Jong-un (44) and former US President Bill Clinton (50).

Ada Lovelace was called as the
“enchantress of numbers” and is credited with creating the first ever
program for an Analytical Engine. Her 197th birth anniversary was
celebrated on December 10, 2012. She was the daughter of the famous poet
Lord Byron. Her original name was Augusta Ada Byron, and on her
marriage to William King she became Ada King. Later, her husband became
an Earl and she became the Countess of Lovelace. Even though scholars
are divided over her contribution to early computing, a computer
language, Ada, is named after her. A medal is also awarded in her name
by the British Computer Society.

The Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debts Laws
(Amendment) Bill, 2011, which was approved by the Lok Sabha on December
10, 2012, seeks to convert any part of debt into shares of defaulting
company by the asset reconstruction Company (ARC).

The Union Cabinet has approved the
proposal to set up a National Investment Board (NIB) that would monitor
and advise ministries on expediting projects with investments of Rs
1,000 crore. The NIB has been renamed and would formally be known as the
Cabinet Committee on Investments (CCI). It will be chaired by Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh.

A pair of NASA moon-mapping probes,Ebb and Flow, smashed themselves
into a lunar mountain on December 18, 2012, ending a year-long mission.
NASA has named the site where twin spacecraft impacted the moon in
honour of late astronaut Sally K. Ride, first US woman in space.

India is ranked as the decade’s 8th
largest victim of illicit capital flight behind China, Mexico,
Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the Philippines, and Nigeria,
respectively, in the report by Global Financial Integrity, a
Washington-based research and advocacy organisation.

Time magazine has named Barack Obama, President of USA, as Person of the Year.

Foreign investment ceiling in Asset
Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) has been increased to 74 percent from
49 percent, a move aimed at bringing more foreign expertise in the
segment. However, the foreign investment in ARCs would need to comply
with the FDI policy, including the one related with sectoral caps. Also,
the total shareholding of an individual FII shall not exceed 10 percent
of the total paid-up capital. Further, foreign investment limit of 74
percent in ARC would be a combined limit of FDI and FII. With this
change in the policy, the prohibition on investment by FII in ARCs has
been removed.

On December 26, 2012, China opened world’s longest high-speed rail
line. Trains will travel the 2,298 km route from Beijing to Canton at
over 300 kph.

The Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill
is aimed at strengthening the regulatory powers of Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) and to further develop the banking sector in India. It is also
aimed to enable the nationalized banks to raise capital by issue of
preference shares/rights issue/issue of bonus shares.

Wipro Consumer Care and Lightning (WCCL) has acquired the
Singapore-based FMCG company LD Waxson for $144 million (approximately
Rs 790 crore). This is WCCL’s second largest acquisition; it had
acquired Unza, another Singapore-based FMCG brand, in 2007 for $246
million. WCCL’s portfolio of national and international brands includes
Santoor, Chandrika, Aramusk, Enchanteur, Yardley, and Woods of Windsor.

The US-headquartered Sutherland
Global Services, an international provider of business process and
technology management services, has piped Genpact and others to the post
to ink a Rs.1,000-crore all-cash deal to acquire Apollo Health Street
Limited (AHS). An associate company of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd,
AHS is a leading provider of healthcare business services and
world-class health information technology (HIT)-based solutions.

Buoyed by a strong participation from foreign investors, the Union
government managed to mop up Rs 6,000 crore from the sale of its 10%
stake in the iron ore miner NMDC. Unlike the past two auctions—ONGC in
March and Hindustan Copper in November 2012—State-run banks and LIC did
not play a dominant role. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bid for
half the issue.

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group and
China’s Dalian Wanda Group have announced a tie-up to develop real
estate and movie theatre projects. The deal makes the company India’s
largest trading partner with China.

Tata Motors has appointed Cyrus P. Mistry as its Chairman with
effect from December 28, 2012, after retirement of group chief Ratan N.
Tata.

K.P. Singh-led real estate major
DLF has signed an agreement for effecting a sale of the luxury hotel
chain Aman resorts to the hospitality property’s founder and Chairman
Adrian Zecha for about USD 300 million (over Rs 1,600 crore).

In an ASSOCHAM survey, CEOs of the world have rated the $100-billion
Tata Group as India’s best-known global brand within and outside the
country.

Eight Indian CEOs have made it to
the list of 100 global chief executives, compiled by Harvard Business
Review (HBR), with ITC’s Y.C. Deveshwar and the late Subir Raha of ONGC
finding a place in the top 20. Deveshwar was first among the Indian CEOs
featured in this list, and cornered the seventh place overall. The
other Indians on the list include Raha at 13th place, ahead of Reliance
Industries’ Mukesh Ambani who was ranked 28th. Larsen & Toubro’s
A.M. Naik was ranked 32nd, followed by BHEL’s A.K. Puri (38), Bharti
Airtel’s Sunil Bharti Mittal (65), Jindal Steel & Power’s Naveen
Jindal (87) and Steel Authority of India’s V.S. Jain (89). The
best-performing CEO over the past 17 years globally was Steve Jobs of
Apple. Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com was at the second place.

According to Grant Thornton's Global Dynamism Index (GDI), India is
ranked at a low position of 40 among 50 economies in the world in terms
of “dynamism”. The list is topped by Singapore, followed by Finland in
the list, Sweden was ranked third, Israel (fourth), Austria (fifth),
Australia (sixth), Switzerland (seventh), South Korea (eighth), Germany
(ninth) and the United States (10th).

APPOINTMENTS

Pranab Mukherjee: 13th President of India.Barack Obama: President of the United States of America. Vladimir Putin: President of Russia.Enrique Pene Nieto:
President of Mexico. His victory brought back to power the Institutional
Revolutionary Party or PRI after 12 years of remaining in the
opposition.Joachim Gauck: President of Germany.Abed Rabbo Mansour: President of Yemen.Martin Shultz: President of European Union.Francois Hollande: President
of France. He becomes France’s second Socialist President. In 1981
Francois Mitterrand had become the first Socialist President of France.Park Geun Hye: Daughter of a former general who led a military coup in South Korea, she became the first female President of the country. Hugo Chavez: President of Venezuela for the third consecutive term.Xi Jinping: Head of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and President of China. Mohamed Morsy: The first freely-elected President of Egypt.Raja Parvaiz Ashraf: Prime
Minister of Pakistan, following the disqualification of Yousaf Raza
Gilani by the Supreme Court, following his refusal to pursue graft cases
against President Zardari.Antonis Samaras: Prime Minister of Greece.Shinzo Abe: Prime Minister of Japan.Li Keqiang: Prime Minister of China. Hamid Ansari: Vice President of India. P.C. Chidambaram: Finance Minister of India.Sushil Kumar Shinde: Home Minister of India.Gen. Bikram Singh: Chief of Indian Army. Admiral D.K. Joshi: Chief of the Indian Navy. Justice Altamas Kabir: Chief Justice of India. He is the 39th Chief Justice of India and the fourth Muslim to hold the top post in India’s history. B.V. Wanchoo: Governor of Goa.Dr Aziz Qureshi: Governor of Uttarkhand.Margaret Alva: Governor of Rajasthan.Parkash Singh Badal: Chief Minister of Punjab.Manohar Parrikar: Chief Minister of Goa.Vijay Bahuguna: Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.Okram Ibobi Singh: Chief Minister of Manipur.Akhilesh Yadav: Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He is the youngest ever Chief Minister of the State.Virbhadra Singh: Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh.Narinder Modi: Chief Minister of Gujarat.Jagadish Shettar: Chief Minister of Karnataka.V.S. Sampath: 18th Chief Election Commissioner of India.Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi: Election
Commissioner of India. The appointment was made to fill the vacancy
caused by elevation of V.S. Sampath as Chief Election Commissioner after
S.Y. Qarashi demitted office. H.S. Brahma is the other Election
Commissioner.Jim Yong Kong: President of
the World Bank. He is the first physician and Asian-American to head
World Bank. 52-year-old Kim is a specialist in HIV/AIDS with a Ph.D in
anthropology. He was born in Korea and grew up in USA.Rahul Khullar: Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).S.R. Rao: Commerce Secretary of India.S.K. Srivastava: Coal Secretary in the Union government.Ashish Bahuguna: Agriculture Secretary of India.Raghuram G. Rajan: Chief economic adviser to the Indian government.Ramesh Sippy: Chairman of the National Film Development Corporation.Nancy Powell: Ambassador of USA to India.Salman Bashir: High Commissioner of Pakistan to India.Michael Steiner: Ambassador of Germany to India.Gustavo Manuel de Aristegui y San Roman: Ambassador of Spain to India.Shaida Mohammad Abdali: Ambassador of Afghanistan to India.Harald Sandberg: He was appointed as the Ambassador of Sweden to India.Subhash Joshi: Director-General of National Security Guard (NSG).Gulshan Rai: First National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC).Ranjit Sinha: Director of Central Bureau of investigation (CBI).Alok Joshi: Chief of Research & Analysis Wing (RAW), an organisation entrusted with the task of gathering external intelligence. Syed Asif Ibrahim: Director of Intelligence Bureau. He is the first Muslim to head the Intelligence Bureau.Ajay Chadha: Director General of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP). Arvind Ranjan: Director General of the National Security Guard (NSG).Subhash Joshi: Director General of Border Security Force (BSF).

MILESTONES

Flt. Lt. Sneha Shekhawat: She is the first woman pilot to lead the Indian Air Force contingent at the Republic Day parade.Preet Bharara: Indian-American
attorney, who is “busting Wall Street” and taking down some of the
financial world’s prominent figures, has made it to the cover page
ofTime magazine for his anti-corruption crusade.Amartya Sen: India-born
Nobel laureate, he has been felicitated with the prestigious National
Medals of Arts and Humanities award by US President Barack Obama, for
his efforts to increase the understanding of fighting hunger and
poverty.James Cameron: Director of
“Titanic” and “Avatar”, he has completed the world’s first solo dive to
the deepest-known point of earth, reaching the bottom of the Pacific
Ocean’s Marina Trench, south-west of Guam, in a specially designed
submarine named “Challenger Deep”. He reached a depth of 10,898 metres
beneath the Ocean’s surface. His first words on reaching the bottom,
following a descent that took two hours and 36 minutes, were: “All
systems OK”.Rochelle Maria Rao: A TV
anchor from Chennai, she has been crowned Pantaloons-Femina Miss India
International, 2012. Vanya Mishra, a 19-year-old from Chandigarh has
been crowned Miss India World. Prachi Mishra, , 24-year-old investment
adviser from Allahabad, has been crowned Miss India Earth.Ajit Pal Singh: Former
captain of Indian hockey team, was selected as the chef-de-mission of
the Indian contingent at the London Olympics. He became the first
Olympian to lead the Indians in Olympics. He had led India to their only
Hockey world cup triumph in 1975.Dr Amit Garg: Haryana boy
and a former IIT topper, he created a world record by mentally dividing a
10-digit number with a five-digit number in 34.5 seconds. The previous
world record of a similar calculation was 36 seconds. He represented
India at the Mental Calculations World Cup in Germany in September 2012.Justice Dalveer Bhandari: He
has been elected as a judge of the International Court of Justice. He
will serve a 2012-18 term in the ICJ, which is the principal judicial
organ of the UN, based in The Hague, Netherlands. It is after a gap of
over two decades that an Indian has been elected as a judge of ICJ.Rattan Tata: Tata group
chairman, he was conferred “The Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising
Sun” title by Japan, for his contribution in strengthening economic
relations between India and Japan.Tamae Watanabe: A
73-year-old Japanese pensioner, she bettered her decade-long record to
remain the oldest women to conquer Mount Everest. She had first become
the oldest woman to scale the peak in May 2002. Her feat came four years
after 76-year-old Nepalese Min Bahadur Sherchan became the oldest man
to scale the peak.Rahul Bhattacharya: Delhi-based
writer, he become first Indian writer to win the prestigious Ondaatje
Prize 2012 for his book, “The Sly Company of People Who Care”. The book
is about adventures of an Indian journalist. The 10,000 British pound
award is given by the Royal Society of Literature to a work of fiction,
non-fiction or poetry which evokes the “spirit of place”, and which is
written by someone who is the citizen of or who has been resident in the
Commonwealth or Ireland.Maximilian Ghosh: In an
extraordinary recognition from one of the world’s renowned art
galleries, the Royal Academy of Arts, London, the works of this
nine-year-old artist have been exhibited alongside contemporary greats.
Maximilian is of half Indian origin.Sushil Kumar Solanki: Winner
of bronze medal 66kg freestyle Wrestling in the 2008 Beijing Olympics,
he was the flag-bearer of the Indian contingent at the opening ceremony
of London Olympics.Anirban Lahiri: He has
become the first Indian golfer to score a hole-in-one in British Open
championship. He has also become only the second Indian, after Jeev
Milkha Singh, to make the cut on his Major debut.Ashoke Sen: Indian scientist
and Professor at Harish Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad, he won
the world’s biggest prize in physics—the first Fundamental Physics prize
started by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. Sen and eight other
scientists will get $3 million each—double of what is given with the
Nobel Prize. Sen is considered one of the original contributors to the
string theory, a complex mathematical construct which is meant to
resolve one of science’s biggest mysteries—that gravity as explained by
Einstein does not fit in with quantum theory.Abhijit Banerjee: Indian
economist, currently professor of economics at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, he has been appointed to the panel that will
advise UN Secretary General on a “bold and practical agenda” post 2015.
The 26-member panel will coordinate with the inter-governmental working
group tasked to design sustainable development goals as agreed at the
Rio+20 conference.Saadat Hasan Manto: Renowned
poet, columnist and writer, celebrated widely in both India and
Pakistan. His famous story, ‘Toba tek Singh’, is one of the best
available narratives that portray the pain of Partition. In August 2012,
he was awarded Pakistan’s highest civilian award,
Nishan-i-Imtiaz, posthumously.Yu Wenxia: She was crowned
Miss World 2012. She is from China. India’s Vanya Mishra made it to the
top seven. The contest was held in Beijing.Kaushik Basu: The World Bank
has appointed him as its chief economist and senior vice-president. He
had been the Chief Economic Adviser to government of India till July
2012.Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda: He
won India’s first medal—a silver—at the London Paralympic Games. He is
India’s 8th Paralympic medal winner and first in high jump. He is also
the third Indian to win a silver.Jeet Thyali: Poet-turned-novelist, his debit novel, ‘Narcopolis’ was shortlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize for fiction.Arunima Sinha: A national
level volleyball player who lost her leg after being thrown out of a
moving train in April 2011, she has become an inspiration for
differently-able people. On September 3, 2012, she climbed the 21,110
Chamser Kangri mountain in Ladakh after training with Bachendri Pal, the
first Indian woman to conquer Mt Everest.Sunita Williams: She has
became the second woman in history to take over as the commander of the
International Space Station (ISS). She took-over as the commander on
September 17, 2012. The first woman was Peggy Whitson in 2007-08.Aishwarya Rai Bachchan: The
United Nations appointed her as a goodwill ambassador, with a mission to
help stop new HIV infections in children and promote increased access
to anti-retro-viral treatment. Felix Baumgartner: Austrian
daredevil, he leaped into the stratosphere from a balloon 37 km above
Earth. He broke as many as three world records, including the highest
skydive ever. Baumgartner jumped from a skateboard sized shelf outside a
capsule carried by an enormous balloon. His body pierced the atmosphere
at speeds topping 1342 km per hour, becoming the first skydiver to
break the speed of sound.Flt Lt Alka Shukla & Flt Lt M P Shumathi: Indian Air Force is preparing the two women helicopter pilots to become the first IAF women pilots in combat roles.Manda Banerji: She led a
team of Cambridge University researchers who have discovered a zoo of
monster black holes lying billions of kilometres beyond the
constellation Virgo. Fiercely swirling giant clouds of thick dust had
surrounded the black hole zoo till Banerji’s team penetrated it with a
cutting-edge infrared telescope.Malala Yousafzai: 14-year-old
girl from swat region of Pakistan who stood up to the might of the
Taliban and started a crusade for education of girls all over Pakistan.
She was almost killed by the Taliban but survived the gruesome attack.
She was ultimately saved by transferring her to a hospital in Birmingham
and the world community providing her with best medical aid.Anil Kumble: Former India cricket team captain, he was appointed as chairman of ICC’s cricket committee.Monisha Kaltenborn: She became the first woman to head a F-1 team. The 41-year-old India born is the team principal of Peter Sauber’s racing team.
Sachin Tendulkar: He was awarded the ‘Membership of Order of
Australia’, making him only the fourth non-Australian cricketer to be so
honoured.Lieutenant Commander Abhilash Tomy: He
is the first Indian to attempt a solo non-stop circumnavigation. He was
flagged-off from Mumbai on November 1, 2012. He is sailing in an
indigenously made ship Mhadei, which was used three years ago for
circumnavigation by another naval officer. That voyage, however, had
four stops.Rakesh Mohan: Former deputy
governor of RBI, he took over as Executive Director on the board of the
International Monetary Fund (IMF). In addition to India, he will
represent Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan on the board.Ami Bera: An Indian-American
physician from California, he became only the third person of
Indian-origin to be elected to the US House of Representative. Dalip
Singh Saund, who was a mathematician with farming interests, and Bobby
Jindal, who is a health policy expert and currently governor of
Louisiana, were the other two.Krzystof Zanussi: Polish filmmaker, he was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the India International Film Festival of India, Goa.Olivia Culpo: 20-year-old
beauty queen who plays the cello and is a breast cancer advocate, she
has been crowned Miss Universe 2012, the eighth time an American has won
the pageant. Miss Philippines, 23-year-old Janine Tugonon, was the
runner-up and Miss Venezuela, Irene Sofia Esser Quintero, came third.
Miss Guatemala, Laura Godoy, was chosen Miss Congeniality.Jiroemon Kimura: 115-year-old
resident of Kyoto Prefecture’s Kyotango city in Japan, he has been
officially recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest living
person in the world. He became the world's longest-living man as he
reached the age of 115 years and 253 days to surpass the previous record
holder.

EVENTS

JAN1—US President Barck Obama
signs into law a massive $662-billion defence spending Bill that also
seeks to suspend sixy per cent of $1.1-billion military aid to Pakistan.28—Eighty-two per cent of the electorate exercises their franchise in Manipur Assembly polls.30—Punjab electorate records
highest ever turn-out of 76.63 per cent in the elections for the State
Assembly. Uttarkhand records 70 per cent polling,

FEB2—In a huge embarrassment to
the government and a jolt to the telecom sector, the Supreme Court
today cancels 122 2G licences granted during the tenure of former
Telecom Minister A Raja declaring it as “illegal” and blamed the
government's flawed first-come-first-served policy.4—Russia and China veto UN’s resolution backing an Arab League plan for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside.4—Demonstrators storm five
Syrian embassies in Europe and the Middle East after Syrian forces kill
more than 200 people in the city of Homs.7—Mutiny in Maldives forces President Mohamed Nasheed to resign.8—More than 62 per cent
voting is recorded the 10 districts of Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh for
the first time since independence, in the first phase of elections.13—Israeli embassy staff
targeted in New Delhi and Tbilisi (Georgia). Four people are hurt in car
blast in Delhi. Israel accuses Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of
involvement in the incidents.13—Prime Minister of
Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gilani is indicted by the Supreme Court for
contempt of court by refusing to write to Swiss authorities seeking
reopening of money-laundering case against President Zardari.15—Iran loads first
domestically made fuel rods into Tehran nuclear reactor, a move that may
hasten a drift towards confrontation with the West over suspicions that
it is seeking the means to make atomic bombs.15—Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad, fighting an 11-month-old uprising against his rule, orders a
referendum on a draft Constitution, to be held on February 26, which
limits the presidency to two 7-year terms and allows for multiple
parties.21—Yemen votes out Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power after 33 years of rule.24—Greece formally launches a
bond swap offer to private holders of its bonds, setting in motion the
largest-ever sovereign debt restructuring in the hope of getting its
messy finances back on track.26—Syria votes on new constitution amid unrest.27—The Union Home Ministry
announces the decision to defer operationalisation of National Counter
Terrorism Center (NCTC) from its scheduled date of March 1, following
opposition by non-Congress Chief Ministers.

MAR2—Iran votes to elect a new Parliament.3—Around 81 per cent voters exercise their franchise in the Goa Assembly polls, beating all previous records.4—China announces hike in its defence budget by 11.2c per cent to
whopping $106.4 billion, pushing its military spending for the first
time to the triple digit.22—India votes in favour of a US-initiated resolution at the UN
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, urging Sri Lanka to ‘credibly
investigate’ allegations of rights violations during the prolonged
conflict against Tamil Tigers, a move which could have a bearing on
relations between the two South Asian nations.22—Soldiers seize power in West African State of Mali, in protest
the government’s failure to quell a nomad-led rebellion in the north.

APR1—Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi wins a parliamentary seat in a landmark election, setting the
stage for her to take public office for the first time.3—Indian Navy inducts Russian-made nuclear-powered submarine INS
Chakra, joining an elite group of nations possessing sophisticated
warships. The submarine has been leased for 10 years from Russia. It can
go up to a depth of 600m and has an endurance of 100 days with a crew
of 73.10—Bharti Airtel launches India’s first 4G (TD-LTE) service in Kolkata.12—Guns fall silent in Syria as UN-backed ceasefire comes into effect.13—India’s first Integrated Check Post (ICP) is inaugurated by Home
Minister P. Chidambaram at Attari, near Amritsar (Punjab). The check
post is expected to double bilateral trade between India and Pakistan.16—Afghan forces regain control over parts of Kabul after killing
all 36 Taliban militants who had unleashed on April 15 the biggest wave
of coordinated suicide attacks in a decade.19—Agni-V, India’s most potent missile with a 5,000 km range, is
successfully launched, putting the country into ICBM league.26—India successfully launches a microwave Radar Imaging Satellite
(RISAT-1) using PSLV, from the spaceport at Wheeler Island in Andhra
Pradesh.27—A Delhi court convicts former President of Bhartiya Janata Party
(BJP) in a graft case and sentences him to four-year imprisonment. In
2001, he was caught on camera taking bribe from a fake arms dealer.

MAY2—Mynmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi makes a historic debut
in Myanmar Parliament, by taking oath to join a parliamentary system
crafted by generals who locked her away for much of her long struggle
against dictatorship. The 1991 Nobel Peace prize winner’s debut in a
Parliament stacked with uniformed soldiers could accelerate reforms that
have already included the most sweeping changes since the military coup
50 years ago. The signs of change have already prompted some countries
to suspend sanctions.10—The Olympic flame is lit in ancient Olympia in Greece, in a
solemn ceremony filled with mystery and tradition, signalling the final
countdown to the start of London Olympic Games, 2012.13—Indian Parliament celebrates 60th Anniversary of the first sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.18—Italy recalls its Ambassador to India Giacomo Sanfelice amid a
major diplomatic row over the continued detention of two Italian marines
in India, who are charged with killing two Indian fishermen in February
2012.30—Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi receives a rapturous
reception in Thailand from crowds of cheering compatriots who flocked to
celebrate her first trip outside Myanmar in nearly a quarter of a
century.

JUN1—Treasury yields hit their lowest in hundreds of years and global
stocks drop towards 2012 lows as investors scramble for lifelines on
worries about Spain’s parlous finances and China’s growth outlook.2—India joins 40 other nations to vote at the United Nations Human
Rights Council (UNHRC) against Syria, strongly condemning the recent
Houla massacre that resulted in the death of over 100 citizens. China,
Cuba and Russia vote against the resolution.2—Egypt’s ousted President Hosni Mubarak is sentenced to life in
prison after a court finds him guilty of complicity in the killing of
protestors during the popular Arab spring uprising against his 30-year
rule.3—A 1000-ship flotilla lights up the Thames river as part of the
most public celebration of the four-day commemoration of the diamond
jubilee of the reign of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.15—China’s first woman astronaut, Liu Yang, soars into space as part
of the team of three astronauts, sent to attempt China’s first manned
docking.16—Egypt votes in first free Presidential election in their history.19—Pakistan’s Supreme court disqualifies Prime Minister Yousaf Raza
Gilani, with effect from April 26, 2012, when he was convicted and
sentenced for not obeying court orders to reopen graft charges against
President Zardari.27—In a historic first in northern Ireland peace process, Queen
Elizabeth meets and shakes hands with Martin McGuinness, who was a
senior leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that killed her cousin
Lord Mountbatten (the last Viceroy of India)in 1979. McGuinness is now
the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland.

JUL7—Jubilant Libyans voters mark a major step towards democracy after
decades of erratic one-man rule, by casting their ballots in the first
parliamentary elections after the over throw of Moammer Gaddafi in 2011.10—Russian lawmakers vote to ratify accession to the World Trade
Organization (WTO), bringing the world’s largest country into the club
after a tortuous 18-year negotiating marathon. Russia, the world’s ninth
largest economy, will now become 156th member of WTO.12—India scales down its diplomatic ties with Denmark following the
European nation’s refusal to challenge in its apex court a local court’s
order disallowing extradition of Purulia arms drop case accused Kim
Davy. The scale down of ties will result in Danish diplomats not being
entertained by senior government officials.15—Indian-American record-setting astronaut Sunita Williams takes
off for her second space odyssey to the International Space Station
(ISS), on a Russian Soyuz rocket. She will stay at the ISS for four
months, along with Russian Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko and Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide. Williams
will take over as Commander of Expedition 33 on reaching the space
station.25—Pranab Mukherjee takes the oath as India's 13th President at a colourful and grand ceremony in New Delhi.25—The Indian Army begins two-day celebrations to mark the 13th
anniversary of its victory over Pakistan army in the 1999 Kargil War
with the hoisting of a huge Tricolour at the Kargil war Memorial in
Drass, 150 km from Srinagar. The 37.5 feet in length Tricolour was
presented by MP Naveen Jindal’s Flag Foundation, a non-profit
organisation which works to popularise the Tricolour.27—London Olympics are declared open by Queen Elizabeth. More than
10,000 athletes from 204 countries will compete in 26 sports over 17
days of competition in the only city to have staged the modern Games
three times.30—The electricity grid in the northern region of India collapses,
effecting more than 300 million people. The failure is attributed to
excessive power being drawn by Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana,
Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.31—North, East and North-East grids trip. 684 million Indians in 21 States reel under world’s biggest-ever black-out.

AUG2—India lifts ban on investment from Pakistan, the only country that
faced such curbs, in yet another effort to improve ties with its
neighbour.3—Subedar Vijay Kumar Sharma of 16 Dogra Regiment gives India its
second medal at London Olympics; he bags a silver medal in 25m rapid
fire pistol event.4—Saina Nehwal, ranked fifth in the world, wins bronze medal in
Badminton Women’s Singles, becoming only the second Indian woman to win a
medal in an individual Olympic sport.5—NASA’s Curiosity rover lands on Mars. Its descent-stage
retrorockets fired, guiding it to the surface. Nylon cords lowered the
rover to the ground in the “sky crane” manoeuvre. When the spacecraft
sensed touchdown, the connecting cords were severed, and the descent
stage flew out of the way. 16—Heavily-armed Taliban fighters storm Pakistan’s high-security
Minhas air-base near Islamabad. Some of Pakistan’s 100 nuclear warheads
are believed to be stored here.16—Ecuador grants asylum to maverick Wikileaks founder Julian
Assange, setting off a diplomatic row with Britain. Assange is hiding in
the London embassy of Ecuador.31—A special court awards an enhanced life imprisonment of 28 years
to Maya Kodnani, BJP MLA from Gujarat, for her role in the Naroda Patiya
massacre that left 97 people killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi is sentenced to life imprisonment till
death.

SEPT9—India’s space odyssey crosses a historic landmark its 100th
mission since launch of its first satellite Aryabhata in 1975. A Polar
Satellite Launch vehicle (PSLV-C21) successfully puts into orbit two
satellites—Spot 6, a French earth observation satellite, and Poiteres, a
Japanese micro-satellite.12—Germany’s Constitutional Court gives a green light for the
country to ratify Europe’s new bailout fund with a rider that the German
Parliament be given a veto right over any increase in Berlin’s
contribution to the 700 billion euro European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
The decision boosts the hopes that the single currency bloc is finally
putting in place the tools to reolve its three-year-old debt crisis.12—US Ambassador to Libya and three other diplomats are killed in a
furious attack on their consulate and a safe house in the eastern city
of Benghazi, by gunmen blaming USA for a film they said insulted the
Prophet Mohammad.29—India’s heaviest ever advanced communication satellite, GSAT-10,
is launched successfully from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana.

OCT9—A 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, who spoke out
against the atrocities of militants in their former stronghold of Swat,
is shot in the head during an assassination attempt by the Taliban.20—Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launches the nation-wide
Aadhaar-based payment system for subsidies and entitlements from Jaipur.20—50th Anniversary of the India-China war of 1962 is observed by paying tributes to the war heroes.

NOV4—More than 75 per cent voting is reported in State elections in Himachal Pradesh.7— US President Barack Obama sweeps to re-election, creating history
again by defying the undertow of a slow economic recovery and high
unemployment to beat Republican foe Mitt Romney. Obama becomes only the
second Democrat to win a second four-year White House term since World
War II.8—A 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocks Guatemala; more than 50 people
are reported dead. It is the strongest earthquake to hit Guatemala since
a 1976 temblor that killed 23,000.13—The Union government’s plan to rake in Rs 40,000 crore from the
sale of spectrum for 2G mobile services suffers a major blow, with the
sale generating a disappointing Rs 9,400 crore with no takers for key
circles, including Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and Rajasthan.14—Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao bow out of the
top leadership of the ruling Communist Party of China after a 10-year
stint in power, as the party’s key Congress wraps up its meeting after
electing a new set of younger leaders.16—Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dissolves the Lower House of Parliament for an election in December 2012.17—Israeli aircraft bomb Hamas government buildings in Gaza,
including the Prime Minister’s office; Israel’s cabinet authorises the
mobilisation of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing for a possible ground
invasion.19—Indian-American Sunita Williams and her two co-astronauts Flight
Engineers Yuri Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide land on Earth after spending
four months in orbit. The three astronauts touched down in the dark,
chilly expanses of central Kazakhstan, onboard a Soyuz capsule, after a
125-day stay at the International Space Station.20—India is among the 39 countries that vote against a UN General
Assembly draft resolution which called for abolishing the death penalty,
saying every nation had the “sovereign right” to determine its own
legal system. Among the countries opposing the non-binding resolution
were: Bangladesh, China, Korea, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Libya,
Pakistan and the US.21—Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist Ajmal Kasab, convicted for the 26/11
Mumbai terror attack, is hanged at the Yerawada Jail in Pune.21—Israel and Palestinian group Hamas agree on a ceasefire brokered
by Egypt to end a week-long conflict in the Gaza Strip that claimed at
least 150 lives.23—India successfully test-fires an indigenously developed
supersonic interceptor missile, capable of destroying a hostile
ballistic missile.28—India’s push to digitally empower millions of its poor students
with low-cost , government-subsidized , internet-enabled tablets,
Aakash-II, wins UN endorsement despite raging controversy and misgivings
on the provenance and pricing of the device. UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-Moon personally approves the Indian effort at the UN Headquarters.
Makers (British-Canadian-Indian company Datawind) and chief patron
(government of India) of Aakash-II say it will revolutionize education
and commerce.

DEC5—FDI in multi-brand retail gets the approval of the Lok Sabha as
the Opposition motion seeking immediate withdrawal of the decision is
rejected convincingly after walkout by BSP and SP. 218 vote in favour of
the Opposition motion, while 253 vote against it in the House where 471
members participated in the voting. The total strength of the House is
545. The House also rejects the motion seeking amendment to the rules
notified by the Reserve Bank under Foreign Exchange Management Act
(FEMA) to enable FDI in multi-brand retail.5—The Supreme Court upholds the election of Pranab Mukherjee as
President and dismisses former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader
P.A. Sangma’s petition against him. The verdict is delivered by a
five-judge constitution bench and goes 3:2 in favour of Mr Mukherjee. Mr
Sangma had argued in his petition that Mr Mukherjee held offices of
profit on the date of filing of nomination for the election. The
petition said Mr Mukherjee was chairman of the Indian Statistical
Institute in Kolkata as well as leader of the House in the Lok Sabha
when he entered the presidential race. Mr Mukherjee had denied the
allegations. 9—After weeks of intense protests and street conflicts over
controversial edicts granting Egyptian President sweeping powers,
Mohammed Mursi finally rescinds November 22 decrees, but remains firm on
his stance on referendum to be held in second week of December. The
decrees had armed him with almost unrestricted powers, barring judiciary
from challenging his decisions. 13—Union Cabinet clears the controversial Land Acquisition Bill,
making it mandatory to seek the consent of 80 per cent of affected
landowners in case their land is acquired by private players.15—Egyptians queue to vote on a Constitution promoted by its
Islamist backers as the way out of a prolonged political crisis. The
opponents, however, reject it as a recipe for further divisions in the
Arab world’s biggest nation.23—Egyptian Islamists led by President Mohamed Mursi claim a
resounding victory in the two-round referendum on a highly controversial
draft constitution as unofficial results show that around 64 per cent
of people voted in favour of the new charter.26—Egyptian President Muhamed Mursi signs into law a new
Islamist-drafted Constitution which he says will help end political
turmoil and allow him to focus on fixing the fragile economy.28—Russian President Vladimir Putin signs into law the controversial
Parliamentary legislation banning the adoption of Russian children by
American families. The law—retaliation for a US law punishing Russian
officials implicated in the 2009 prison death of the whistle-blowing
attorney Sergei Magnitsky—will come into force on January 1, 2013.28—Myanmar government decides to allow private daily newspapers,
starting in April 1, 2013, for the first time since 1964, in the latest
step toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation.
30—Twenty one Pakistani security personnel—kidnapped by the Taliban
from check posts near Peshawar—are gunned down by the militants.

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